Can't Leave
by Chironex27
Summary: Prequel to Don't Leave the Office. In the games, the player sees through the perspective of the night guards, but this focuses on the perspectives of the spirits in the animatronics throughout the years. Big thanks to Reading a Pulse for help in characterization (especially with the Mangle) and advice on story. Rated T for implied violence against children.
1. The Puppet

_Can't Leave_

A Five Nights at Freddy's Fanfiction by Chironex27

Brendon looked inside Fredbear's Diner. He hoped that maybe, if Zack could see him, he might let him come inside and have a piece of the cake that Fredbear was carrying around.

Ever since the diner had opened and introduced its new robot bear waiter, Brendon had wanted to come. Fredbear looked so happy, carrying cake to all the tables. Fredbear cake was supposed to be the best too. Zack looked like he was having so much fun eating cake with his friends.

Brendon had wanted to go to Zack's birthday party when he heard that it was at Fredbear's, but he wasn't invited. Zack's Dad had a lot of money, so he got to do things like this all the time, and he had a lot of friends. Brendon had wanted to be Zack's friend, but Zack didn't notice him at all. Brendon's family had only just moved to the neighborhood, away from all of Brendon's old friends. It had been really hard for Brendon to talk to anyone at his school, so no one noticed or cared about him. Thinking like that made Brendon sad. He missed his friends. He wanted people to like him, but he didn't think anyone did. He started to cry.

Fredbear stopped in the middle of the diner and looked at Brendon. He was the only one to notice the little kid crying outside. Then Zack started to bang on the table for his cake. Fredbear turned his attention from one upset child to another and continued to serve cake.

Fredbear was the only one to notice Brendon. He was the only one to care about him, the only one who might want Brendon as a friend. But he couldn't leave the store, and Brendon wasn't allowed into the reserved store if he wasn't invited. The thought made it so that he didn't notice the car driving around the other side of the store.

…

Brendon watched as Zack opened one of his presents. Zack seemed excited about this one, it was big, and wrapped in elegant paper. Brendon thought he saw Zack mouth the word "Grandma." When he opened it though, Zack's smile became a little fixed. What he pulled out was a large doll, about the size of a grown man. It resembled a sock monkey, having a long, lanky black body, with white striped limbs. Its most distinctive feature was its face, a white mask with a black mouth and eyes, with red dimple cheeks and spots above and below its mouth, like a clown's makeup. What stood out the most to Brendon though were the purple stripes hanging down from its eyes, almost as if the doll was crying. Brendon realized that it was a puppet. Zack and his friends looked at it apprehensively, until Zack dropped it to the floor as another present was handed to him, kicking the doll under the table. The puppet was facing Brendon.

Brendon began to think about going home when he noticed a reflection in the window above him. Brendon couldn't make out most of what the person looked like because his face was shadowed and distorted by the reflection. All he could make out was that the person was wearing purple, and he was smiling. Brendon could just make out his eyes. A person's eyes are the most expressive part of their body, and Brendon could tell, just from the man's eyes that he wanted to hurt him.

He was going to hurt him a lot, and have fun doing it. Brendon couldn't turn around or cry out. He only stared at the reflection, facing the puppet in the store as the trickle of tears down his eyes became a downpour.

…

The Fredbear animatronic had originally been programmed by Mr. Wendell with only one imperative: Make children happy. It was programmed with rudimentary facial recognition software to monitor happiness in children (ignoring adults who could find the animatronic creepy, apart from recognizing employees wearing purple uniforms), along with a series of phrases meant to make children feel welcome. The phrases were used depending on the actions being performed in the restaurant ranging from "Enjoy your cake!" whenever cake or some other food was brought to a table, to "Welcome to Fredbear's!", whenever a new child entered, and "I hope you had a great time at Fredbear's!" when a child left, or to respond to the emotional state of a child, such as "You're going to have a great time!", "Hey there, how are you doing?", "Are you having a good day?", and "I hope you have a great time at Fredbear's!" whenever an unhappy child was detected. However, after a hectic series of events in which Fredbear walked out of the diner to make children happy on the street, Mr. Wendell programmed in another imperative: Stay in the store.

Today, as the animatronic was bringing cake to children in a birthday party, it identified a crying child outside the store.

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

The first imperative required Fredbear to stop and identify why the child was sad, though the second imperative reasserted itself as Fredbear identified irritation and anger from children inside the store awaiting their cake, and Fredbear continued to bring cake. However, the child outside the store remained unhappy, making the software in the animatronic slow down,

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

adversely affecting the happiness of the children inside the store, who were shouting for more cake. The Fredbear animatronic continued to fulfill its directives as quickly and efficiently as its software would allow, managing to focus only on the children in the store.

The Fredbear animatronic observed a store employee approach the child outside. As the employee came behind the child, the child began to cry more.

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

The child's emotional state deteriorated at an exponential rate.

-CHILD UNHAPPY-CHILD UNHAPPY-CHILD UNHAPPY-

Fredbear stopped in the middle of the store, a plate of cake still in its hand. It attempted to alleviate the child's unhappiness with a preprogrammed phrase;

"Hey there, how are you doing?"

-STAY IN THE STORE-

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

-STAY IN THE STORE-

The other children's emotional states also deteriorated, appearing red on Fredbear's monitor as they screamed and banged their fists on the tables, demanding cake. However, the emotional state of the child outside was reaching critical levels that the animatronic did not have the appropriate software to process.

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

"Are you having a good day?"

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

The emotional states of all of the children in the store had reached critical levels by this point. One of them threw a slice of pizza at the animatronic that it was unable to process. The emotional state of the child outside the store had continued to deteriorate, preventing Fredbear from getting to the other children, as it was programmed to help the most unhappy child first, but the second directive would not allow Fredbear to bring cake to him. Errors began to accumulate.

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

"Hey there,"

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

"are you having a nice time?"

Continued emotional deterioration.

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

"Welcome to Fredbear's!"

-CHILD UNHAPPY-CHILD UNHAPPY-CHILD UNHAPPY-

Fredbear's servos locked up and began to smoke and spark.

"Enjoy your cake!"

The adults in the restaurant were all staring at the animatronic apprehensively, as if it was about to blow up. The children only got angrier and louder.

-CHILDUNHAPPY-

"You're goingYou're going to have a great time!"

-CHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPY-

"Are you having a goodgoodgoodgoodgoodgoodgood day?"

-CHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPY CHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPY CHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPY-

"IIIIII hopehope that you have a great time at FredFredFredFredFredFredFredFred…"

…

Mr. Wendell was baking as frantically as he could to meet the demand of the party when he heard a noise. He peeked out, and saw Fredbear apparently having a stroke.

"FredFredFredFredFredFred…"

He rushed to the animatronic, frantically flipping the off switch. Finally Freddy stopped sputtering, and Wendell could hear the hiss of its servos cooling down.

Some of the parents were getting up to leave with their angry kids. Wendell worked as fast as he could to do damage control, taking cake to each of the children that had parents patient enough to stay. Fredbear stayed in the center of the diner like a statue, staring at the empty window outside. Eventually, Wendell got the animatronic onto a cart and wheeled him to the back room. By the time he got back to the Dining Area though, most of the families had left, looking as if they had walked away from a plane crash. Wendell thought about trying to call them back, but he doubted he could salvage this mess. Now these kids were going to complain about this all to their friends at school, and the parents would complain about it to their friends at work, church, or the book club, and Wendell would be out of work for a month. He sighed. At least he'd have time to look at Fredbear.

Hardly anyone leaving Fredbear's Diner looked back, as if they were trying to avoid something embarrassing and shameful. It was only the last mother and child to leave that bothered to look back, seeing what was lying on the sidewalk in front of the store.

Wendell heard a woman scream, and he rushed outside. All that was left in the store was a puppet, lying underneath one of the tables, lost and forgotten.

…

After the crying spirit had been torn from its physical vessel, it attempted to float away. However, its tears held it to the Earth, keeping it from passing on. The pain that the spirit had encountered while corporeal was too great, dragging it down like chains. Constrained between worlds, the spirit could only flit around, the only sensations it felt being pain, sadness, and loneliness. It could sense other spirits around it, most still connected and fresh like roses. There was one going away though, one still connected, that reeked. It was rotten, like a bad tooth or a wart. It had caused the spirit pain, but it did not reveal any remorse. If anything, the rotten spirit was gleeful. It went away before the crying spirit could reach it. The crying spirit was left alone and cold. There was something; an empty vessel. The crying spirit searched it, and found a mirror of itself. It took the vessel.

The Puppet felt a sensation spread through its limbs, though it remained immobile under the table. It had the memory of a name, Brendon, and the memory of Brendon's life, but it seemed so unlikely that the Puppet had ever been Brendon. There was also its pain. There was its pain, and a desire to stop its pain. It knew that something horrible had happened to it, something that involved a bear and a Purple Man.

…


	2. Fazbear Entertainment

The investigation into the child's death ruined Fredbear's Diner. No one wanted to eat somewhere that a child had died, especially not with a case that was still open. The affair was too tragic and too embarrassing for anyone to want to come back, even after Mr. Wendell had repaired Fredbear. Wendell had to put Fredbear's Diner on the market. Eventually, Wendell was contacted by an up-and-coming entertainment business that branded itself as 'Faz Entertainment.' Try as hard as he might, Wendell couldn't avoid being fleeced by Faz Entertainment, who bought the rights to Fredbear's Diner and everything in it for almost nothing. This included the rights to the Fredbear animatronic, the store uniforms, and the name of the store. One of the executives, Frank Faz decided to capitalize on the Fredbear animatronic, rebranding it 'Freddy Fazbear', and making it the new mascot of a chain of children's pizzerias, 'Freddy Fazbear's Pizza'. The idea was to make a profit by making the cheapest pizza possible, drawing customers in (little, bratty, screaming kids that would beg and pester their parents to take them) with the charm of the Freddy Fazbear animatronic, who would interact with the children as it did before in Fredbear's Diner. Frank loved the thing; it was an incredible business measure. Along with Freddy, Frank had gotten an old puppet that had come with the store for free. Frank considered wiring it with animatronic parts to act as Freddy's sidekick, but decided that the thing wouldn't really fit with Freddy's cute animal design, and ended up stowing it in the backroom of one of the new stores. However, the puppet had given Frank and the other executives at Fazbear Entertainment and idea; if one animal animatronic could bring in customers to eat at a kid's restaurant, perhaps another one would bring in more. Really, as long as the kids were entertained, they wouldn't care what they were eating. So, Fazbear Entertainment had their design team put their heads together and come up with a new character; Bonnie the Bunny, a bunny that would play guitar to accompany Freddy's vocals in songs. With a new character accompanying Freddy performing on stage and interacting with kids in the store, profits skyrocketed, and Fazbear Entertainment slowly decreased the amount of real cheese that they put in their pizza.

Initially, in order to avoid similar meltdowns to what had occurred to the original Fredbear, Fazbear Entertainment scrapped the animatronic in favor of a new animatronic design, the "springlock" suits. The initial idea was that it would be more reliable and cheaper to use store employees wearing suits than it would be to purchase additional parts for animatronic endoskeletons, though the Springlock suits were designed to allow operation both through the use of an employee operator or an endoskeleton. However, after learning of an unfortunate incident involving multiple and simultaneous springlock failures at one of the Fazbear locations, in which an employee in a Springlock Freddy suit laughed at a joke, releasing moisture onto springlocks, triggering them to snap shut and disembowel the employee, which caused another employee to shout out in alarm, likewise triggering a springlock failure, the company deemed the suits temporarily unfit for employees, and switched back to endoskeleton operation.

However, the executives weren't satisfied. The addition of Bonnie had been a resounding success, but why stop there? Why not add another animatronic? The design team soon came out with Chica the Chicken. The team gave Chica some additional features, including a "Let's Eat!" bib and a cupcake with eyes designed to incite the kids to eat more cake. However, Chica's addition required some minor design adjustments to be made to Freddy and Bonnie, who shared a golden color design that had been carried over from the original restaurant. From now on, only Chica would possess a yellow coloration, Bonnie would be purple, and Freddy would be brown, though in certain stores a rare "Golden Freddy" could still be seen. But really, why stop there? The design team felt that the band was more-or-less complete, but the performance could use a sideshow. The character would have to be distinctive enough to carry a show on its own, so after the team had decided on a fox character, they put a list of names of whatever was popular at the time in a hat. They pulled out 'pirate', and Foxy the Pirate Fox was born. The new additions were a resounding success, and the pizza deteriorated to something resembling paste spread out on cardboard. It didn't matter. Kids didn't care what they were eating, as long as it was pizza, and they got to laugh and cheer at the animatronics in the new Freddy's Fazbear's Pizza.


	3. The Puppet Watching

Alone. Always alone.

The Puppet had been in the back room of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza for a long time. Employees didn't like to come back there often because of the Puppet. It was never in the same place twice when they went in. They always assumed that someone had moved it, though sometimes, the employees would share stories at breaks about the Puppet, like how it was always staring at them, or how they sometimes felt that when they weren't looking at it, the Puppet was floating in the air behind them.

Sometimes, the Puppet thought about Brendon's life. It worried about Brendon's parents. It knew that they were sad for what happened, wishing that they had done something different to keep this terrible thing from happening to their son. Perhaps instead of letting him walk the short distance home from school, they could have insisted that he ride on the bus where he was safe. The Puppet sensed it one day, when Brendon's mother overdosed on depression medication. A month later, Brendon's father turned the car on in his garage and kept the motor running. He didn't move, only staring at a picture of him playing catch with Brendon as he fell asleep. The Puppet sensed these things, and cried.

The Puppet was indeed staring at the employees that came into the back room. They were wearing purple. Purple was bad.

Something bad was coming.


	4. Golden Freddy

Robbie had never been so happy or excited in his life. He had gotten to go along with his big brother Will for his 8th birthday party along with his three friends, Lucy, Greg, and Peter. And even better, it was at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! It was the first time Robbie had ever been here. He had seen Freddy and his friends walking around and singing in the store for a while, and he had always wanted to go in. Everyone did. It would be five months until his 7th birthday, so Robbie had thought that he would have had to wait forever for his Mom to take him, but then Will had said that he wanted to have his 8th birthday at Freddy's!

Robbie had a great time eating pizza and cake, cheering Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica on, laughing at Foxy's pirate jokes and singing along with his pirate shanties, and hugging them when they came down off of the stages. Robbie had heard about other places like Freddy's where talking animals like Freddy would sing, but would just stay on the stage where no one got to see them. That sounded so boring to Robbie.

Unfortunately, it was getting late, and Robbie got the feeling that his and Will's Mom wanted to leave soon. She didn't seem to enjoy herself that much. She didn't eat any of the pizza. Robbie couldn't get that. Freddy's pizza was the best, because Freddy served it! Robbie knew that the fun was going to end soon when his Mom realized that she had left her purse in the car.

"Will, Robbie, stay here while I get my purse, alright?"

"Mommy, can I use the bathroom?" Robbie asked. He had drunk a lot of lemonade.

"Sure honey, but come right back here, alright?"

"Yes Mommy."

Mom left and Robbie saw his disappointment reflected in his brother's eyes. They were going to have to leave soon, but they were having so much fun! Lucy, Greg, and Peter all got the idea too. Lucy and Greg mopped while Peter began shoveling down as much pizza as he could before they had to leave. Robbie went back to the bathroom. When he finished and walked out though, he wasn't watching where he was walking and bumped into someone in the short hall leading in and out of the bathroom.

"Oh, I'm sorry…"

Robbie looked up at who he bumped into…and it was Freddy!

Freddy looked down at Robbie with his perpetual smile.

"No problem kiddo! Are you having a good time?"

Robbie jaw dropped when he smiled. Freddy was talking to him!

"Freddy!"

Robbie sprang forward and wrapped his arms around Freddy. Freddy laughed and gave Robbie back a big bear-hug.

"Yep, that's me alright!"

Robbie looked up at Freddy again, but realized something was different. This Freddy was yellow, not brown like the Freddy on stage. Wait… 'this Freddy'?

"Hey Freddy, why are you yellow? And why is there another Freddy on stage?"

Golden Freddy gave a big laugh, clutching his big belly.

"Oh, that Freddy's just a fake. I'm the real deal, kiddo! I'm the original thing, all the way from the first Fredbear's Diner!"

"Really?" Robbie asked, his eyes glistening in wonder.

"You better believe it, kiddo!" Freddy gave Robbie a little punch on the shoulder for fun. He leaned against the wall coolly. "By the way, what's your name, buddy?"

Freddy just called Robbie buddy!

"My name's Robert, but most people call me Robbie."

"Robbie huh? That's a great name. So, you here by yourself, Robbie?"

Robbie shook his head.

"No, I'm here with my big brother and his friends for his birthday!"

Robbie pointed to where his table was. From their point in the Dining Room, none of the other kids could see Freddy or Robbie. Freddy looked over to them.

"Say, Robbie, where's your Mom? I don't see her anywhere."

"Mom's getting her purse from her car." Robbie looked down, remembering that his time was short. "She's going to take us home soon."

Freddy looked at the table for a moment, and then back at Robbie.

"Hmm…and you don't want to leave just yet, do you, Robbie?"

"No…" Robbie let his arms hang by his side. "I wish I could stay here forever."

Freddy put his fist under his chin in thought.

"Well jeez Robbie, I sure wish that there was a way I could let you do that. But hey!" He pointed his finger into the air. "You're not going to be leaving just yet, right?"

"No, not yet." Robbie answered.

"Well then, you should make the most of the time you got left!"

"But how? Mom will be back soon."

Freddy waved Robbie's worry away.

"Oh, pfft. That's plenty of time! It could take a while for her to find her car in the dark, let alone her purse!"

"But what can I do Freddy?" Robbie tried to think of what there might be left to do. He was full of pizza and cake, and he had run out of tokens.

"Well…" Freddy looked from one side to the other to be sure no one else was listening. He leaned in and whispered to Robbie. "Between you and me, I know the best game in the place."

"What is it?" Robbie whispered back.

"It's a secret. You can't tell anyone else. Do you want to play?"

Robbie nodded.

"Good. Now though, if you want to play the game, we'll need four other players." Freddy pointed at Will, Lucy, Greg, and Peter over his shoulder with his thumb. "Do you think you can get your brother and your friends to come to the back room? It's just past the bathrooms down the little hall. You'll need to be careful not to miss it."

"You bet Freddy!" Robbie said excitedly.

"That'a boy." Freddy ruffled Robbie's hair and stepped aside.

Robbie ran over to the table.

"Hey guys! I just talked to Freddy!"

"Yeah, we all did." Peter said through a mouthful of pizza.

"No, this one's different!" Robbie insisted. "He's gold!"

"Gold?" Lucy repeated, interested.

"Yeah! He says he's the real Freddy!"

"But Robbie, the real Freddy's up there." Will pointed at the stage.

Robbie looked back towards the bathrooms and pointed.

"Than who's that?"

The four older kids all span in their seats to get a better look. Peeking out from a corner, they could see Freddy waving at them. Smiles split open in each of the kid's faces. Freddy put his finger in front of his mouth in a 'shush' gesture and beckoned to them, slipping down the hall to the back room.

"Wow!"

"He says there's a game in one of the rooms back there, but he needs all of us to come if we want to play!"

Peter, Lucy, and Will all jumped out of their seats, but Greg was still looking over the edge of the table at where Freddy had headed. Greg was always a little nervous and shy.

"I…I don't know guys…Will's Mom told us to stay here until she got back."

"Oh, c'mon Greg, it's Freddy!" Lucy said impatiently.

"We're not going to get this chance again, Greg!" Peter added.

"We'll be right back before Mom comes back." Will said.

Robbie came up to Greg and tugged lightly on his shirt. "Freddy really wanted to meet all of us Greg, please?"

"Oh…um…" Greg looked back and forth from the hall, to Robbie, to the main entrance that Robbie's Mom and left out of. "Um…well…alright."

"Yay!" Lucy jumped up and down. Robbie shushed her.

"Freddy wants it to be a secret, okay?"

Lucy nodded her head and put her finger to her lips.

Will, Lucy, Peter, and Greg all followed Robbie to the hall where Freddy had told him to find the back room. Freddy was right, it _was_ hard to find. It was all the way at the back of the restaurant, where Freddy's…or the fake Freddy's band could only be barely heard. Greg kept on wringing his hands.

"Oh…oh, we shouldn't be here…"

The others were getting worried too.

"Uh…Robbie, are you sure this is the right place?" Lucy asked.

"It should be…" Robbie said, scanning over the walls for a door. Will defended him, even though he looked uneasy too.

"Freddy went back this way, he should be here."

"There it is!" Robbie exclaimed, pointing to an old black door. He reached up and opened it.

There were only a few dim light bulbs illuminating the area. The room was dominated by boxes of junk; spare pizza boxes, paper cups, straws, and some imperishable pizza ingredients.

"It…it's dark…" Greg whined, clutching his arms.

"Are you sure that this is the right room, Robbie?" Will asked.

"I…think so."

"Hey, what's that?" Lucy pointed at something at the other end of the room.

Lucy's attention had been caught by a huge puppet leaning against one of the boxes and staring at the door. They hadn't noticed it until now because it was so skinny, like a sock monkey. The children went closer to look at it, though Greg stayed in the back, unnerved by the doll's appearance. It had long, thin, black body, and a face like a mime's, with purple streaks under its eyes.

"Is…this the game?" Peter asked.

"I don't know." Robbie answered. "Freddy said that he'd be here."

They all jumped when the door closed behind them. They turned and saw Freddy.

"Freddy!" They exclaimed.

Golden Freddy didn't respond. At first, he just looked at them all. Something about his eyes didn't seem right to Robbie; they seemed empty.

"Hey Freddy!" Will said. "What game are we going to play?"

Freddy looked to the puppet. He walked over, shouldering the children out of the way. He picked up the puppet.

"Hey Freddy, who's that?" Robbie asked. "Is he one of your friends?"

"No." Freddy answered without turning. "Just an old puppet." He shut the puppet inside a box. Just before the box was closed, Robbie saw something that he didn't like. The puppet was looking at him. He couldn't explain how in that brief second he knew that, but the puppet was looking at him. As Freddy pushed it inside the box, Robbie thought that he saw the puppet reaching out to him with one of its hands.


	5. What will we do?

The software from the Fredbear animatronic in Fredbear's Diner required intense patching; it wouldn't have been good for business if the animatronics malfunctioned like that again. However, basic software remained the same, and had been copied in all of the new animatronics along with Freddy. There were some updates such as new phrases, the ability to sing, enhanced facial recognition, etc., though the basic directives remained the same; the animatronics were to entertain children and make them happy and remain in the store.

These were the directives that the Foxy animatronic was fulfilling that night. In between pre-programmed times for performances given in the Pirate's Cove, Foxy would move around the store, interacting with the children. One of the new updates made to the animatronics was linking them to the reservation list, allowing them to know the store's occupancy and the table numbers of the customers. Additionally, the animatronics were linked to the store security cameras, allowing them to track the movements of any child in the restaurant. On the night of Will's birthday, Foxy navigated through the store two times, interacting with the children as it passed by their table or whenever it detected a child in its proximity roaming the store. Foxy was able to detect positive levels of cheerfulness from the children at table 14 whenever it interacted with them, using preprogrammed phrases ranging from "Argh!", "Welcome to Foxy's Pirate crew!" to "Don't be runnin' in Freddy's, you hear? Otherwise you'll have to walk the plank!"

However, as closing time approached, Foxy was unable to detect the children at table 14. According to the store occupancy database, the party of table 14 had not yet checked out of the restaurant. Foxy accessed the security footage to identify when the children were last at the table. Identifying the time, Foxy followed the past progress of the children as they walked through the store into a back room. As these children were the last in the store, and the animatronics were programmed to be constantly entertaining the customers whenever they were in free-roam mode, Foxy navigated towards where the children were to monitor, and if necessary, improve their happiness levels.

On the way to the back room, the Foxy animatronic identified a store employee giving positive happiness levels.

"Hey Foxy, what's new on the plank?"

The animatronic processed the comment and responded:

"Yar! You be an important part of the crew!"

"That's great Foxy."

The employee laughed and continued on his way.

Foxy continued towards his destination and entered the backroom.

However, when it arrived, Foxy encountered a problem. It was able to recognize the faces of the five children from table 14, but it couldn't fully register them. It had difficulty ranking their happiness levels. Their behavior was off. The children were all slumped on the floor, not moving, and their body heat was rapidly dropping. When Foxy was able to scan them and rank their happiness levels though, it found them to be at critical low levels.

"Argh! What's with the long faces, crew? Your captain's here!"

There was no response.

"What say we have ourselves a little sea-shanty, eh?"

No change.

" _Ooohhh, What will we do with a drunken sailor?_

 _What will we do with a drunken sailor?  
What will we do with a drunken sailor?  
Early in the morning._"

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

"Come on, crew! Sing along!

 _Way hay and up she rises  
Way hay and up she rises  
Way hay and up she rises  
Early in the morning!_"

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

There was still no response, either positive or negative. As Foxy sang, it identified something else moving in the room. It was not one of the children, or a store employee. One of the boxes opened up, and an object that Foxy identified as Store Property rose out. The Puppet stared at Foxy. It was not a customer or employee, so Foxy ignored it and continued to sing.

 _"Shave his belly with a rusty razor  
Shave his belly with a rusty razor  
Shave his belly with a rusty razor  
Early in the morning"_

The Puppet hovered out in front of Foxy, preventing it from attempting to make the children happy. Foxy looked up at the Puppet to better analyze the situation. However, looking up, it did not identify the Puppet as Store Property anymore. The expression on its face showed too much of a negative happiness response for Foxy to identify it as anything other than a crying child.

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

"Hey there, matey? Come to join in?"

The Puppet extended its arm towards Foxy's face. Foxy, like the other animatronics, was programmed to allow children to touch it, but only for a few seconds to prevent damage.

"What's that matey? You want a hug?"

The Puppet touched Foxy between his eyes. Immediately, Foxy began to accumulate errors.

-CHILD UNHAPPY-CHILD UNHAPPY-CHILD UNHAPPY-CHILDUNHAPPY-CHILDUNHAPPY-CHILDUNHAPPY-CHILDUNHAPPY-CHILDUNHAPPY-CHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILD-CHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPYCHILDUNHAPPY-


	6. Can't save them

The Puppet couldn't save them. It saw what was happening. It wanted to stop the Purple Man, it might have been able to get out of the box, but there was too much of Brendon still in it. Too much of a frightened child whose first instinct to seeing something scary was to hide.

The Puppet sensed as the Purple Man grabbed the smallest child, named Robbie, and used him to manipulate the other children. There was horror and fear. It sensed the older brother wanted to help him, but completely helpless to do so, only keeping Robbie safe for a few moments while he took the pain that the Purple Man inflicted on him. The Puppet sensed as Peter tried to run away, only to be stopped by the Purple Man, and his body battered, his spirit clinging to the inanimate husk that remained. It sensed as Lucy and Greg cowered in the corner until Will's strength gave out, and the Purple Man turned to them. But above all, the Puppet sensed Robbie. The Puppet sensed Robbie's shock at the realization that Freddy was a fake, Robbie's guilt tearing him into pieces at leading his brother and his friends into this and being too weak to run away or fight back, and his pain. This hurt was the last thing all of the children felt. The Purple Man left, his rank spirit elated and achieving some kind of perverted peace. The children though, were left crying on the floor. Their bodies were too damaged for their spirits to remain, but their agony was still too great for them to move on. They were wisps of smoke without a candle to hold them. Without a vessel, they would only remain smoldering.

Brendon's spirit was not happy as the Puppet. There was nothing from his old life apart from a name, and a few memories, most of them not good. Still though, it could not leave the children's spirits like this with only their agony.


	7. What does a mother fear?

Robbie and Will's mother came back to one of the most frightening sights that a parent can see. Her sons, along with all of their friends, weren't at the table. She calmed herself down quickly enough, assuring herself that they had simply ignored what she had asked of them and had gone off to play more games. Mrs. Garen really wished that they would listen to her more; she didn't want to get angry with Will on his birthday. She looked around, trying to find one of the children. However, it seemed as if there were hardly any other kids left in the store. Those remaining were being taken away by their parents, either whining to stay longer or too tired to whine. Her suspicion was confirmed with the animatronics' closing lines:

"Well kids, I hope you enjoyed the show, because I sure know I did! Feel free to come back any time!"

The animatronics filed off of the stage.

Mrs. Garen was starting to panic again. She looked everywhere she could; at the Bathrooms, the arcade, outside the Kitchen, but she couldn't find any trace of the kids. She stopped a passing store employee. He hadn't seen anything. Her fear and anxiety continued to grow. She tried to calm down. This was just a big mess; the kids had to be around here somewhere. She was sure that they'd find the kids scattered around the store, giving off last minute excuses. Mrs. Garen had to remember that when she found the children not to take her anxiety out on them, she would just need to give Will and Robbie a talk about making sure that they did what she told them in the future. She'd explain that sometimes when kids wandered off, they could get into trouble, and if she didn't know where they were, she couldn't help them. But they wouldn't be in any trouble. They'd just be running around the store somewhere, oblivious to the fact that they were giving their mother gray hair.

However, after Mrs. Garen had talked to the other store employees, including the manager, she began to suspect something was wrong. It was past midnight by this point. Eventually, the manager called the police to try to calm Mrs. Garen down, though their arrival only added to the idea that something was terribly, terribly wrong. But there couldn't be, this kind of thing wouldn't happen to her, this was just something that you heard about in the news…to other people. Mrs. Garen clung to this illusion until the morning, when the police told her that the children were missing, but they had caught the person they believed responsible. Their assurances that the man was guilty didn't help Mrs. Garen. They only confirmed the worst possibility to her.


	8. Freddy Fazbear

The spirit could only feel terrible sadness and agony at first. What had happened to it was abominable. It could only focus on itself at first, trying to deal with the atrocity that had happened to it in life. As it recuperated though, the spirit was able to remember an identity.

Will.

As Will's spirit regained itself, it immediately drew out from his memory another name.

Mom.

Will's mother was nearby, he could sense it. He could sense her anxiety, which turned into panic, then fear, and finally despair. She was nearby, but cut off from Will by an almost impassable gulf. There was no way for Will's spirit to communicate with his mother.

Another name came almost instantaneously.

Robbie.

Robbie's spirit was nearby, but his sadness and pain was even greater than Will's. Will called out to Robbie, but Robbie either could not hear or didn't want to. Will's spirit could not approach that of his brother, the agony it was in was too thick and cloying, as if it was buried under a mountain of mud.

Will's spirit drew out three other names.

Greg.

Peter.

Lucy.

They were nearby, still in the vicinity, like Robbie's. Will's spirit longed to call out to them, but as it tried to move away from its body, it felt a piercing chill. Being in the Ethereal was like being submerged in ice water. Will's spirit did not want to leave his body, but it sensed as it cooled that soon it would be unable to hold the spirit for much longer, and Will would be lost in the ethereal. Soon Mom's spirit would fade away, leaving Will with only a memory. The other children's spirits would have to leave their own bodies soon, though they could not provide comfort to each other. They had so little to give. Robbie's spirit was the most worrisome. His body seemed so cold, but his spirit was curled up inside it, too traumatized to face outwards. The spirit longed for some other anchor to hold onto, but these were the only names, the only words it could gather; Will, Mom, Robbie, Greg, Peter, Lucy.

However, another presence made itself known to Will. Will's spirit directed its attention towards it, and saw it as a crying child. However, the crying child's spirit was shelled inside a vessel. It could not be truly said that it was a body, but it was something that could contain the spirit and shelter it from the cold Ethereal. The crying child cupped Will' spirit in its hands, carrying him away from his cooling body. It carried Will to a new shell that had only just arrived. It held Will's spirit to the shell's eyes, and Will funneled himself inside.

-Directives:

-MAKE CHILDREN HAPPY-

-ENCOURAGE BUYING OF FAZBEAR PIZZA AND TOKENS-

-STAY IN THE STORE-

-OBEY FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT POLICY RULES-

These were the new goals of Will's spirit inside of his new shell. It went over the directives, phrases, rules, and songs programmed into the shell and came to a new identity:

Freddy Fazbear.

Are you awake?

Will looked in front of him, and realized that he did in fact have eyes now, somehow. Now that he could truly see, he looked at the Puppet floating in the air in front of him. He wanted to flinch and back away, but these actions were not part of Freddy Fazbear's programming. Fortunately, the Puppet's connection to the ethereal was enough for it to sense the shock from Will's spirit.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you.

Will had no idea how he was could comprehend these words. What he was receiving was not sound that Freddy was able to process with its sound recognition mechanisms. Will's spirit was receiving the communication directly from the Puppet. Will tried to respond to the aberration.

Who are you?

However, this phrase was not one programmed into the animatronic's memory, and what came out was instead;

"Hey there! Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza!"

What!? I didn't mean to say that!

"You're going to have a great time!"

It's alright. I can hear what you're saying. What you're really saying.

Will raised Freddy Fazbear's hands to his face. At least his body allowed him mostly free range of motion, though he felt that his movements were slow, clunky, mechanical.

What? What's happening to me?

This time, Will was able to stifle the preprogrammed phrase, though a burst of static came out instead. The Puppet continued to speak.

I put you inside of this body.

What? Why? I don't understand, what happened…?

In Will's memory, in the non-corporeal mind that he still had, he remembered what had happened. Golden Freddy…no…not Golden Freddy. Will did not know who this person was beneath the suit. All he could remember was the color Purple. Purple. That color. The Purple Man had tricked Robbie into bringing Will and his friends to the back room where he…Will didn't want to go any further into this, though images and sounds of crying flashed through his mind.

Robbie…where's Robbie?

I did the best I could…but the body that I put him in is not a good one.

What? What do you mean?

The Puppet looked to the center of the room, where the Purple Man had left the Golden Freddy suit. Using Freddy's eyes, Will could only see the suit, but he could also see beyond that without his eyes, and saw his brother curled up in a ball, crying inside.

Robbie!

"Hey there!"

Will walked his new body towards Robbie. He worked against his new metal limbs, crouching and holding the Golden Freddy suit in his hands, with Robbie inside.

Robbie! Can you hear me?

Will was able to hear a small, quiet voice.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry Will.

Will tried to communicate:

Robbie, I'm here!

"Are you having a good time at Freddy's?"

Will couldn't stand it. His brother was right in front of him, miserable, but there didn't seem to be anything he could do for him. All around him, he heard the suits activating. He heard Peter speak out through the Ethereal first.

What!? Where am I? I…

The Bonnie suit spoke as Peter tried to communicate.

"I'm ready to jam!"

Who said that? Was that…was that me?

"It's going to be fun times here at Freddy's!"

Will could sense Peter's panic as he tried to look around the room with the Bonnie animatronic's stiff joints.

What's going on?

"How's everyone doing today?"

I want to go home!

Will tried to stand up, still holding Robbie inside the Golden Freddy suit, but he slipped out of the Freddy animatronic's hands.

Peter?

Static came out as Will struggled to keep his body from using a preprogrammed phrase. Peter's panic only increased as he looked at the Freddy suits. Will noticed Lucy and Greg's consciences gain greater clarity as their spirits filled out their animatronic suits with their corpses inside.

Greg spoke.

Please…no…I want to go home, someone please help…

"Yar! Welcome to the Pirate's Cove!"

The Foxy animatronic's voice scared Greg's spirit too much to say anything else.

Lucy tried to speak again.

Greg, is that you? Where are you? I can't see you!

"Hey Foxy, get a room. It's our turn for the show now!"

What? What's going on? Who said that?

The Puppet floated into the center of the room next to Will and Robbie

Please calm down, let me explain.

No one calmed down.

What? The Puppet's moving!

"Looks like we've got some new guests!"

Get away from me, please leave me alone!

"I'll be seeing you next time, matey!"

The Chica animatronic hunched over stiffly and tried to wrap its arms around itself. Lucy pleaded from inside it.

It still hurts. The Purple Man…where is he? Is he gone?

"It's time to rock!"

Why do I keep saying this? Where is everyone?

The Foxy animatronic turned towards the corner of the room and crouched.

I can't let him find me again. I just want him to leave me alone. Why couldn't he leave me alone?

"Best you not be running maties, or else I'll have you walk the plank!"

The Foxy animatronic held its hand and its hook up to its head.

Please, please shut up…The Purple Man will find me…I don't want him to hurt me…

"Don't forget, landlubbers! You can always exchange your tokens at the front for some booty! Go get yourself an eyepatch and be a proper pirate!"

Greg stopped speaking and only cried.

The Bonnie animatronic was backed up against the wall, turning its head back and forth as if trying to find a way out.

I want to go home…

"There's no place on Earth like Freddy's!"

I want to go home…

"Be sure to eat plenty of pizza!"

Will looked to each of the animatronics and then to his own body.

Guys? Are you all in there?

Please. Calm down.

The Puppet finally got the attention of the children's spirits.

I am sorry. I am so sorry for what's happened to you, but you need to let me explain…

Suddenly the Puppet turned its head towards the door.

No, not now. Someone's coming.

The Puppet collapsed.

The door opened, and two people came in. One was a fat man wearing a button shirt and tie, and the other was wearing a purple shirt. The Purple Man. Will tried to back away, but his new legs weren't designed with the ability to walk backwards. The fat man spoke.

"Darn it! Where could those kids be!?"

He turned to the Purple Man, as if expecting an answer, or at least a suggestion. The Purple Man shrugged, visibly worried.

"I…I don't know, Mr. Faz! We looked everywhere!"

As Will looked at the two through Freddy's eyes, he got confused. This Purple Man seemed different. It was teenage girl, but Will thought that it had been a man that had hurt him and his friends. He couldn't remember, all he could remember was the color Purple. Still though, they needed help. He tried to walk towards the fat man and the Purple Man/girl.

Please, help. Someone hurt us…

The fat man stared at Will, suddenly more annoyed.

"And why the hell are the animatronics still on? It's such a waste of energy!"

He looked again at the teenage girl, whose duties did not cover maintenance, but was the only employee within swinging distance. She held her hands up in a perpetual shrug, too confused and too stressed to say anything other than a stutter.

"I…I…I…I don't…"

"Is that all you can say kid?"

The girl just stood there, stammering. Eventually the fat man rolled his eyes and shoed her away.

"Be useful and go look somewhere else."

The girl quickly ran out. The fat man walked up to Will in his Freddy suit.

Please, I think we might be stuck in here…

"Freaking stupid kids bringing police over…ruining my store…"

Please, you've got to help us! There was someone in Freddy suit, my Mom should still be here!

The fat man looked over the Freddy suit.

"Now where's that stupid off switch?"

Please, Mom is so worried…Robbie needs help…

The fat man didn't look up. He couldn't hear anything Will's spirit tried to articulate.

For crying out loud! It's my birthday! I just wanted to come here with my friends!

"Oh, there it is."

Using the animatronic's ears, Will could hear the fat man flip something on his body before everything got shut off. Will was rendered completely deaf, mute, blind, and immobile.

Wait…wait, I can't see! Where are you?

Will! He's coming towards me!

What…what do you mean?

Will could hear his friend's pleas through the ethereal.

Please, can't you hear me? I'm still here! Don't, please!

No…no, I can't see…what's happening?

Will could tell that Greg was the last to have his body shut down.

No…no…no…I don't want it to be dark, please, please leave the light on…No…no…no!

Greg broke off crying. Lucy tried to shout out again.

Someone, please help me! I want my Dad!

What is going on!? Why can't I move? Why can't I see? Why can't I feel anything!?

Hearing his friends got to be too much for Will and he broke down.

Can't anyone hear us? Can't anyone help us? I'm just a kid, I want my Mom!

Please!

I'm sorry…

Someone please come! Anyone!?

It still hurts…it hurts so much!

I'm sorry…

Let me out!

This can't be real…this has to be a bad dream…

I'm sorry…

It's just a bad dream.

I'm sorry…

It's just a dream…

I'm sorry…

Why can't I WAKE UP!?

Will, I'm so sorry!


	9. Malfunctions

Mrs. Garen returned to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza every day, and when it reopened, she went back to table 14 to wait. It had been a week since Robbie, Will, Lucy, Greg, and Peter had gone missing. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the manager at the front desk looking disgruntled that she was there, but no one told her to leave. At noon, the animatronics all came out from storage onto the stage. Mrs. Garen was the only person they were going to perform to. Business had dried up ever since the children had gone missing. The Freddy animatronic opened up.

"Hey kids! You ready to have some fun?"

"I know I am!" Chica said.

"Count me in guys!" Bonnie added.

"Alrighty than, let's string up the band! One…two…"

The three animatronics broke into a song that Mrs. Garen didn't pay attention to. She only watched, remembering how much her sons loved those corny machines. The animatronics finished their first song.

"Hehehehe! That was fun!" Chica said.

"Yeah, can we do another song Freddy?" Bonnie said.

"Well sure guys…wait…hold the phone…" The Freddy animatronic put its hand up to its head and scanned the store. "Uh oh…"

"What is it Freddy?" Chica asked.

"Look's like we've got pirates…"

"Ah, darn it!" Bonnie said.

The curtains on the Pirate's Cove at the back left corner of the room opened up and revealed the Foxy animatronic.

"Hahahahargh! Not just any pirate, mateys! I be the piratiest pirate on the seven seas! You be dealing with none other than Foxy the Pirate Fox!"

The Chica animatronic's eyelids drooped in a condescending look at Foxy.

"The 'piratiest'? Did you really just make that up?"

The animatronics continued a back-and-forth routine that devolved into more singing that Mrs. Garen didn't pay attention to. She stared onto the main stage, at a loss with what to do with herself. She didn't notice the sound of the front doors of the restaurant slamming open, the manager's frightened protests, or the angry footsteps coming toward her until she was pulled up out of her seat. Dan Tenor, Greg's father was holding her by the front of her shirt, looking daggers at her. Mrs. Garen had enough time to notice Dory Tenor, pale and clammy, Terry Everett, Lucy's father, with bloodshot eyes, and John and Ruth Isaiah, Peter's parents, clenching each other like they were on a life boat behind Dan, before Dan started to and spit and shout into her face.

"You were supposed to keep them safe, Carol. You were supposed to keep them safe!"

Mrs. Garen could only stare and sputter. Terry tried to put his hand on Dan's shoulder.

"Dan…just calm down…"

Dan ignored Terry and pointed at Mrs. Garen's face.

"We were supposed to have our kids back home three nights ago. You never brought them. You never called us. Do you know what it's like for us to go through with that, and not being able to call you? Do you know what it's like to be waiting by your phone all night, but when you pick it up, it's not the woman you trusted your son with, it's the police telling you that your son's missing?"

"Dan…we…we don't know for sure what happened."

Dan looked at Terry as if he wanted to kill him. Terry looked away, but then at Mrs. Garen. She wished that he wouldn't, the way he was looking at her, panicky and only just holding himself together made Mrs. Garen feel even worse than Dan shaking her.

"Carol…h..have the police told you anything? Has the guy they got told them where my Lucy is? I…just want her back…there's got to be something you missed…"

Mrs. Garen looked hopelessly at Terry

"Terry…I…I…"

Terry just got more agitated and panicky.

"Y…you must have some idea where they are…?"

"Terry...I…I don't know!"

Terry began to shiver. He put his hand over his mouth, muffling something that sounded like a moan, and took his hand away, trying to smile.

"Well…we don't know what happened to them for sure…the police could find them soon…" Terry waited for Mrs. Garen to say something, anything to reassure him, but Mrs. Garen could only stand there stupidly, distressing him more and more. Terry began to pull at his hair, trying and failing to calm down.

"She's…she's my little girl Carol…she's all I have…"

The animatronics finished their songs and began to file off of the stage as they entered into free roam mode. They approached the only customers still in the store to fulfill their protocol.

Ruth was clenching John, who was speechless. Mrs. Garen looked to them, hoping that they could say something to help her.

"Where were you? Where were you when you were supposed to be watching my son, Carol?"

Mrs. Garen sputtered, breaking down. "I…I was just getting my purse from the car…I was only gone for a minute!"

"You left them alone." Dan accused her. "You left them alone where they could get hurt."

"But they were in the middle of the store! They were supposed to stay there where it was safe!"

"You're blaming our children?" Ruth said incredulously.

"No…I just…I…"

Dan let Mrs. Garen go, disgusted.

"You know what you are? You are a worthless excuse for a parent. I'm done wasting my time with you." Dan turned around and began to walk away, only to walk into the Foxy animatronic. It reached out to Dan.

"What's that matey? You want a hug?"

Dan snapped completely and swung his fist into the animatronic's jaw. The force of his punch dislocated its jaw and pushed it to the floor. It continued to speak, further damaging its jaw.

"Best you not be running maties, or else I'll have you walk the plank!"

The manager ran up to Dan as he was walking out.

"Hey, you can't do th…" He was cut off as Dan shoved him out of the way. Dory looked to Mrs. Garen one last time, shocked. She looked after her husband and ran after him in tears, refusing to look anyone else in the eye. The Foxy animatronic spoke to her as she was leaving.

"Argh! What's with the long faces, crew? Your captain's here!"

Ruth clenched her arms around John, sobbing into his shoulder and refusing to look at Mrs. Garen. John gave her a look, opening his mouth as if to say something but was startled by the Bonnie animatronic.

"Hey there! I'm Bonnie, what's your name?"

John stared at Bonnie, grimaced, and walked out, supporting Ruth crying on his shoulder. The Bonnie animatronic stared after them as they left.

"Have fun kids!"

Terry watched this go on between the animatronics and the parents until he realized that the Chica animatronic was behind him, looking at him in the eye.

"Looks like we've got some new guests!"

Terry and the Chica animatronic stared at each other.

"I'm really glad to have you here!"

Terry began to moan and clench at his head.

"We're going to be fast friends!"

Terry averted his gaze from the animatronic to Mrs. Garen. He gave her one last pained look.

"I've lost my little girl, Carol. I've got nothing left now."

He began to walk out, but the Chica animatronic tried to follow after him with clunky robotic footsteps.

"Aww…don't leave now! There's still so much fun we could have!"

"Just…just shut up!" Terry shouted as he started to run. The Chica animatronic followed him to the door, where it stopped, holding its hand up as if trying to wave.

Mrs. Garen was left sitting at table 14. She stared after the people she could use to call her friends, all thanks to the friendship of her sons with their children. She hadn't really registered the animatronic's presence or their actions; to her they were just part of the restaurant. When the Freddy animatronic came to her table, she didn't look at it.

"Hey there, are you having a nice time?"

Carol looked at the floor, thinking about her life, and what she was supposed to do now.

"You look like you could use a nice slice of pizza."

Carol thought about her sons. She remembered past birthdays, their first days of school, changing their diapers when they were babies, giving birth to them.

"Did you and your friends enjoy the show?"

Carol grimaced as tears started to come out of her eyes. She leaned her head against the Freddy animatronic's stomach and began to whimper.

"Oh, do you want a hug?"

The animatronic bent over and wrapped its arms around Carol, whose whimpering had turned into outright moaning.

"I hope you haveI hope you a great timeI hope"

Carol had buried her face in the animatronic's cheap imitation fur.

"I hopeIIIIIIIIIIIII you're going to lovelovelove"

"Ma'am?" Someone said to Carol.

"I hope youyouyouyou…."

The animatronics' sputtering stopped as it was shut down. Carol looked up from crying into the animatronics' fur at the manager.

"Ma'am, you need to leave now. We need to fix these animatronics."

The manager's mouth was in a thin line. Carol had only been a disturbance ever since the children had gone missing, and now because of her and the other parents, two animatronics were in need of repairs. At the very least though, the Freddy animatronics' sudden vocal bug gave him a reason to finally get rid of the woman.

Carol looked blankly at the manager, who remained where he was, waiting for her to leave. Her tears stopped. She got up from the table and walked out.


	10. Just want you back

In the days that they had been in the animatronics, the spirits of the children got used to the sensation of having their animatronic bodies turned off, though they could still speak to each other. Will could sense the sadness and loneliness of Peter and Lucy through the Ethereal. Greg had it the worst though. He hadn't said a word ever since his father had hit him. The manager had attempted to repair the Foxy animatronic's jaw, though when it wasn't in use, it remained crooked, hanging loosely. Will tried to talk to Greg.

Greg…are you alright?

Will got a mental image of Greg facing the corner of the room.

Will had it a little better. While he didn't think that his mother had recognized him, at the very least he got to hold her again. Will knew she'd be back again. Perhaps then, Will and the others might be able to talk to her somehow. Will had come close to giving a message, though he didn't know of a way to use the pre-programmed phrases in a way that could say anything meaningful to anyone. Additionally, it seemed unlikely that the animatronics had the dexterity to write or communicate in any other way. Robbie's circumstance hadn't changed, though Will liked to think that when he told him about seeing their Mom that Robbie's spirit wasn't crying as much. Lucy and Peter, like Greg, weren't speaking. They wanted to ask why this was happening to them, why their parents left them behind, but the answers were too obvious by this point.

Puppet, what are we supposed to do now?

The best thing would be to try to find something to make you happy here.

What do you mean? We want to get out of here!

…

Our parents are still out there! I almost talked to my Mom today!

I can only tell you what I know.

You're wrong. You're wrong.

…

You're wrong!

The Puppet didn't want to take away Will's hope. However, it was concerned. Its fabric body didn't hold his spirit as concretely as the animatronics, so its spirit had more of a connection to the Ethereal. It let the Puppet know things. It made the Puppet very worried about what was going to happen.

…

The animatronics were brought out the next day after being looked over by Mr. Faz, who couldn't figure out why the Freddy animatronic had glitched like it did. He could only assume that seeing people who were so unhappy had caused a backup in its software, though it still confused him.

Inside the animatronic Freddy, Will looked for his mother in the Dining room. He never liked to see her so sad, but her simply being there was a comfort to him. Peter, Lucy, and Greg had given up. They were still despondent after the previous day, and hung limply inside of the animatronics as their bodies sang and joked with each other. Will tried to communicate with the others and tried to reassure them that their parents would come back eventually, though it was difficult to speak through the Ethereal while the Freddy animatronic was already talking and singing. Finding it too difficult to communicate, and the others too sad to say anything anyway, Will focused on trying to find his mother.

However, she wasn't in the Dining Area. After the first performance, Will used the time spent in the Freddy animatronics' free-roaming mode to search through the store. The others remained on stage, having no reason to walk around. There was no one for them out there.

The Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy animatronics' lack of movement did not go unnoticed by the employees, though they weren't concerned; there were no customers in the store at the time anyway. It was actually more confusing to them that the Freddy animatronic was so active compared to all of the others. It walked through every single room in the restaurant; the Kitchen, the Backstage, even the Bathrooms.

When the half hour for free-roaming time was over, Will was compelled by the Freddy animatronic's programming to return to the stage and begin another performance.

"Hey kids! I hope you enjoyed the games while we took our break!"

The Bonnie animatronic grinned.

"I got to meet some nice new friends, guys!"

"Good to hear, Bonnie!"

"Yeah, but I'm ready to play again." The Chica animatronic said as it turned to the other two.

"Same here, Chica!" Freddy replied. "But hey, just wondering, has anyone seen Foxy?"

"I know he's around here somewhere…" Bonnie said.

"Oh wait, I think I hear him!"

The curtains in the Pirate's Cove opened slightly, revealing Foxy slumped over.

"Zzzzzzzwhat do ya do wi' a drunk'hic'en sailooor, what do ya do wi' a drun'hic'ken sailorrr, what do ya do wi' 'hic' a drunken sailor earlyyy in the mornnnzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…"

The Chica animatronic started laughing.

"Hahahaha! It looks like Foxy had a fun time in the break!"

Will couldn't control where he was looking when the Freddy animatronic was performing, as almost every part of its body had been preprogrammed with a set of movements when it was on stage, so he wasn't as able to get a full scan of the Dining Area as he would have liked. He continued to search for his mother every time the Freddy animatronic passed its eyes over the tables, but she didn't appear.

It's alright, she's just late today.

Another show ended, and Freddy went into free roaming mode, though it never found Will's mother.

She must be in traffic.

The Freddy animatronic got back on stage after free roaming mode ended, the others sill remaining in place. As it performed, Will still couldn't see his mother.

Maybe she came here, but I missed her. Maybe she's in the bathroom.

End show. Free roaming mode.

Maybe Lucy's Dad came by and talked to Mom. Maybe he invited her over for lunch so they could help each other out, and she's planning to come by this afternoon.

Several more performances, and several more breaks of free roaming mode. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza closes. The animatronics go into storage for the night and are shut down.

Maybe she felt sick, and she'll come tomorrow. Maybe the police wanted to talk to her again.

Maybe she's just really, really sad and needed some time alone. I can give her that. I can give her another day. I can give her a week, even. I just want her to come back.


	11. Kinks in the system

Fazbear's was hit hard by the five missing children, but not as hard as Fredbear's Diner was by the one death. Perhaps it was because Fazbear's was simply stronger financially, or parents were less bothered by the idea of missing children than they were by a dead child, but eventually, customers started to come back. However, during the first few days that the customers and their children started to arrive, the staff of Freddy Fazbear's started to get concerned for the first time about the animatronic's lack of movement during free-roam. The animatronics would perform just as usual, but after the shows, when the animatronics were supposed to go out into the store and interact with the customers, only the Freddy animatronic would go out. Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy would remain on their stages, largely immobile, only looking briefly at anything that was particularly loud. The Freddy animatronic itself wasn't working right either. While it would go out into the rest of the restaurant during free roaming time, it didn't interact with the customers in the same way as it used to. Kids would run up to it and talk to it excitedly, though when it talked back, its dialogue was short.

"Enjoy your cake!"

"Huhuhuhu! Welcome to Freddy's!"

Normally, the animatronics would remain with children for few moments, using the preprogrammed phrases in their memory banks to attempt something close to a conversation, responding to the actions and emotions of the children. These days though, Freddy would only say a brief hello, or nothing at all, and continue wandering around the store. However, it would stop occasionally when it saw an adult, usually women. It would walk up to them and stare at them for a few moments, and walk away. As a result, many of the customers were unsatisfied with their time at Freddy's for the first few days after it had reopened. The children were annoyed and let down that Freddy and his friends acted as if they didn't want to talk to them, and the parents were unnerved by the Freddy animatronic staring at them. Mr. Faz would have looked into the animatronics, but he believed that the past few days had caused a few kinks in their emotional detection systems, so he assumed that the animatronics would be back to normal after a few days of the store running normally.


	12. When a bear won't do a bearhug

Gone. Just gone. Not coming back. Didn't recognize me. Won't ever go home.

Lucy's spirit stewed inside of the Chica suit. The songs that she had once loved so much had become mocking to her as she sung them over and over and over again.

Will had tried to talk to her and Peter and Greg, but Lucy didn't want to talk to Will. She was mad at him and his Mom and his brother. She didn't want to talk to the Puppet either. Lucy couldn't see her Daddy anymore because of them, and it was stupid of Will to keep on telling her not to give up, that her Daddy was going to come back. He wasn't going to come back. He didn't want her near him when she had walked up to him. Not like this. Not as a big, fat, dumb chicken. Lucy wasn't going to get to have her next birthday. She wasn't going to have Christmas, or Easter, or Halloween. She wasn't going to go to school and be a zookeeper. She wasn't going to get to see her Grandma and Grandpa again.

She couldn't even see her Mama, and that wasn't fair. Mama was dead too, so why couldn't she get to see her again?

Lucy couldn't control what Chica was doing on stage. That was probably the worst thing of all. She hated not being able to control how she moved, what she said, or even what she was looking at, like she was a puppet. When the animatronics were in free roaming mode, Lucy didn't want to move at all. She just wanted to stop moving and talking so much for just a little bit. If she could, she'd go back into storage and sit there, though the animatronics were programmed to only go back into storage at the end of the day, and they weren't allowed to remain in private places like the storage closets or the bathrooms for too long. At least on the stage, Lucy and Peter had the space to themselves. But even up on the stage, Lucy couldn't get any peace and quiet, as indications of the mood of the customers kept on flashing in front of her, or rather, Chica's eyes. Lucy ignored them, though the more she did when she was on stage, the more persistent they got. After a few days, more and more people came to the restaurant, and Lucy had to ignore more of the warnings. She didn't want to deal with anyone.

One day during free roaming time, Lucy was standing on the stage with Peter, while Will was out looking for his Mom as usual, when Lucy noticed a girl about her age at one of the tables in the back of the Dining Room. Most of the kids in the store were always either excited and happy, or angry that something wasn't going the way they wanted; having to leave the restaurant or Freddy and his friends not talking to them after the shows. This girl though seemed upset. She was sitting by herself at her table, frowning at a plate of cheese pizza in front of her. She looked so lonely. Lucy couldn't even see her parents anywhere. It reminded her of how Will and Robbie's Mom wasn't there when the Purple Man tricked them. This made Lucy sad and angry at Will again, but it also made her think more. This girl was alone in the store, and no one was watching out for her. As far as anyone knew, someone could just come along and grab her.

Lucy didn't want to leave the stage, but she didn't feel that she could just leave this like it was. She walked off the Show Stage and came towards the little girl. Some of the kids in the front of the Dining Area shouted and squealed with glee when Chica finally came off the stage.

"Hey Chica!"

"Hi Chica!"

Lucy ignored them though as she moved to the back of the Dining Area. Some of the kids tried to follow, but some were satisfied enough with seeing Chica move. Those that weren't had to deal with it and went back to their tables pouting. Lucy reached the lone girl, who looked up at her, surprised and a little scared.

Hi, my name's Lucy. What's yours?

"Hi, my name's Chica! What's yours?"

"Mi…Michelle."

Why are you so sad Michelle?

"That's a nice name. Are you having a nice time at Freddy's?"

Michelle was less afraid of Chica by this point and looked back to her pizza, shrugging.

Why are you by yourself?

"Are you enjoying the pizza?"

Michelle shrugged again.

"It's okay, I guess."

-CHILD UNHAPPY-

I know that!

"Be sure to eat plenty of pizza!"

Lucy kept herself from saying anything else that Chica's computer would try to translate. Michelle didn't respond this time, only poking at the pizza a bit. Lucy tried to talk again.

What's wrong Michelle? You look really lonely.

"Are you having a good day?"

Michelle poked a bit more at her pizza until she muttered something.

"None of my friends could come."

What happened to your friends?

"Are you and your friends having a nice time?"

"They all got sick today, and they couldn't come."

This was getting hard for Lucy. She wanted to make Michelle feel better, but she didn't know how to do that with the phrases Chica had in her memory banks. She decided to try something.

That's too bad. At least you could come though.

"I'm glad that yyyyoooouuuu could come to Freddy's!"

Michelle looked at Chica oddly, but she responded.

"Well…thanks Chica."

I wish that your friends were okay, but I'm here at least.

"You look like you could use a hug."

The Chica animatronic held its arms out. Michelle gave Chica another concerned look, but then she looked at the floor. Chica was keeping her arms out for her. Eventually, Michelle scooted over and wrapped her arms around the big yellow chicken.

"Thanks Chica. I'm glad you're here at least."

The two of them heard a voice.

"Michelle, c'mon."

Chica let go of Michelle turned to the source of the noise and saw a man that could only be Michelle's father.

"C'mon, it's time to go. Let's box up that pizza."

Michelle's father put a Styrofoam box on the table, which Michelle put her slice of pizza in. Chica stepped back, allowing Michelle to leave the table and follow her Dad out of the restaurant, holding the pizza in one arm and holding her Dad's hand in the other.

"Michelle, I'm sorry things didn't turn out like you hoped. Maybe we can try this some other time."

"Oh…it was okay." Michelle turned her head to Chica and waved. "By Chica!"

The Chica animatronic held its hand up and waved back.

"It was nice having you! Come back soon!"

Lucy watched as Michelle left, and then went back to the Show Stage. She had managed to keep an eye on Michelle and cheer her up, and that was all she was in the mood to do. Some of the kids shouted in disappointment as Chica went by them without any other attempt to talk to any of them, but they settled down quickly enough. Lucy was able to withdraw back into Chica again. This time though, she felt different. For the first time since she had been murdered, she had felt a sensation of happiness. It wasn't the same as when she was alive, but it was something. Lucy was glad that she was able to talk to Michelle and cheer her up a bit. It felt good; it helped to get her mind off of her own pain. Lucy wanted to be left alone still, but now she thought that maybe it would be nice to come off the stage again sometime.


	13. You can get used to a lot

The children's spirits and their animatronics finally came back into storage.

Things have been improving for you all.

The Bonnie animatronic turned its head to the immobile Puppet.

I got to play with another kid like me. His Dad's a dentist, like mine.

Lucy spoke from inside Chica, whose bib was stained with pizza sauce.

It was fun to get to play with food again. Daddy didn't like it when I did.

Chica turned to Foxy.

You looked like you were having fun sword fighting with those kids Greg.

Yeah…I was. Dad and I used to play like that.

See? The kids really want to play with you.

You should try playing with the kids yourself Will. It's lots of fun to pretend that we're Freddy's friends. They want to play with you the most.

I was busy.

Well…you can still play with the kids and look for your Mom at the same time…

It's not fair if Robbie's not out there. If he can't play, it's not fair for me to.

The Puppet sensed the children give up for now and retract all the way into their suits, ready for the employee who came in to shut them down. The employee walked in, exhausted, but smiling a bit as he moved from animatronic to animatronic.

"Well, that's it for tonight everyone. Lights out. We all got to get some sleep before we do it all over again tomorrow."

The employee turned off Freddy last, though the Puppet noticed that he wavered a bit in front of the animatronic, getting a brief sensation of disgust as he shut Freddy down.

"Jeez…what's that smell? Have the kids been throwing pizza at you guys again?"

The employee considered Freddy for a moment, but decided that whatever the problem was, it could wait until tomorrow and left. Will had made sure to stand himself next to the Golden Freddy suit before Freddy was shut off. Even in the dark, the two were close enough for the Puppet to see them.

…Did Mom come today…?

Not yet. She must be on another trip. It must be important. Maybe she's going to get Dad. Maybe when she comes back, Dad will be with her! Wouldn't that be great?

…Yeah…

You should have seen the sausage pizza that they made today. The sausages were as big as meatballs!

…Will…?

Yeah Robbie?

…Did…did he come back today…?

Who?

…That…that…him…

…No Robbie. He didn't. He's not coming back. Not ever. He's in jail now, and they're never going to let him out again. He's not going to hurt us ever again.

…Are you sure…?

Yes. I'm certain. They're going to lock him and jail and throw away the key.

…I…I don't know…I'm not so sure…

Robbie, don't you believe me?

…It's just…just that…sometimes…I see things…I hear things…

What do you mean?

…I…I see the Purple Man in a room…there's police with him…and they're angry…they're talking to a man with the Purple Man who's trying to keep him from jail…the Purple Man isn't afraid Will…he's not afraid…

Then he's being stupid! The police aren't going to let him go Robbie! You know those cop shows that Mom sometimes watches? That's how it goes. He's not afraid now, but the police are going to get him Robbie. They always do.

…I just…don't know…

Robbie, please trust me. Everything's going to be alright. The Purple Man is going to jail. Mom's going to come back and find us, we'll figure out some way to get her to notice us. Everything's going to be alright, Robbie. Everything's going to be alright.


	14. Health concerns

Haley's Mom and Dad weren't as excited to go to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza as their daughter was, but it would be nice to finally get it over with after Haley had nagged them for so long about it. When she saw the store, she squealed with glee, and again when they went into the store, and again when she saw Freddy and his friends. Haley pouted a bit when her Mom held onto her to stop her from rushing the stage while her father checked in at the front; Veronica had heard about what had happened a few weeks earlier and wasn't going to let Haley out of her sight for a minute.

The two could handle the corny music and screaming children; that was a must for raising an 8 year old girl. What they couldn't handle was the pizza. It was like the cooks had smeared grease onto pieces of paper. Haley however, loved the pizza. Veronica couldn't understand how Haley could just shovel this trash into her mouth, but wouldn't touch her vegetables. The two made sure to keep an eye on Haley as she ran around the store, playing Wack-a-Freddy and jumping into the ball pit, and as she ran up to the Foxy animatronic to give it a hug.

"Argh! You be a fine member of Foxy's crew!"

Veronica carefully pulled Haley away from the animatronic. She didn't like the look of that hook. Haley whined a bit, but then her attention was caught by another animatronic, this one a chicken. Veronica and Karl were less worried about this one; no sharp parts.

"Hi! My name's Chica! What's yours?"

"My name's Haley!"

"That's a nice name. Are you having a nice time at Freddy's?"

"Yeah I am!"

As creepy as she thought the robot chicken was, Veronica thought that the way it was designed was friendly enough.

"Hey Chica, this is my Mom and Dad." Haley tugged on Veronica's arm to bring her in front of the animatronic. "Say hi to Chica, Mommy!"

Enjoying the ridiculousness of talking to a robot chicken, Veronica stifled a laugh and talked to it.

"Hello Chica."

"Hey!" The animatronic's eyes closed in what was supposed to be a friendly grin. "I'm really glad you could come!"

"Well that's nice of you Chi…" Veronica was cut off midsentence when she smelled something. She grimaced and backed away, realizing that the smell was coming from the Chica animatronic. It smelled rotten, like something had crawled into it and died in there.

"Are you having a good day?" The animatronic asked, opening its eyes back up.

"We're having a great day, Chica!" Haley said in response.

A bell rang. The Chica animatronic looked at its empty wrist.

"Oh boy! It looks like it's time for another show!"

It turned around and walked towards the stage, to Veronica's relief.

"Yay!" Haley said, turning to her Mom. "I'm going to sit in the front where the stage is!"

"Um…" Veronica wasn't sure if she wanted her daughter so near that machine; it might make her sick. Unfortunately, Haley had said this as a statement, not a request, and had already run up to the stage. "Haley, wait!" Veronica felt a hand on her shoulder and saw her husband beside her.

"Don't worry, she's right where we can see her, she' fi…" Karl noticed the look on his wife's face. "What's wrong? You look sick."

"I smelled something in that chicken robot. When do you think the last time these people cleaned those things was?"

Karl smiled, unworried. "Oh I'm sure kids just like to throw their food at the animatronics. That must be what the smell was."

"You don't understand, that thing smelled rotten…"

The Foxy animatronic activated from behind the two in the Pirate's Cove.

"Hahahahar! It be time for some pirate jokes!"

On the Show Stage, the Chica animatronic put its hand on its head.

"Oh no, not again…"

"Uh…Foxy…" Bonnie said. "Don't you think that maybe that should wait until later?"

"Yeah, when we're all asleep." Chica muttered.

"Now come on guys, let's hear what Foxy's got." Freddy said.

"Thank ye Freddy, ye old landlubber!" The Foxy animatronic coughed into its hand to clear its throat. "Why are pirates great singers?"

"Well, I don't know, Foxy." Freddy said. "Why are pirates great singers?"

"They can hit the high C's! Hahahahar!"

"Oh brother." Chica muttered.

"Say Freddy," Bonnie whispered. "Can we start the show…?"

"Why did the pirate skip class?" Foxy continued, interrupting Bonnie. While this was going on, Veronica and Karl got closer to the animatronic.

"There…do you smell that? It smells awful!"

Karl grimaced, finally getting the smell himself.

"I know what you mean. But hey…" He said, trying to smile. "It's like I said, kids probably just got their dirty hands all over it and spread that nasty pizza sauce on it. We'll just tell the employees that they need to clean these things."

As Veronica and Karl were talking, the animatronics were continuing their act.

Bonnie sighed. "I don't know, Foxy. Why did the pirate skip class?"

"He was playing hooky!" Foxy held up its hook. "Hahahahar!"

Bonnie groaned.

Veronica saw something on the Foxy animatronic and pointed it out to Karl.

"Is that blood?"

"Well that was nice, Foxy." Freddy said. "It's time to get on with the…"

"No, wait, hang on! There be one more."

Karl looked at the red gunk around the Foxy animatronic's eyes and mouth.

"Listen, now you're just getting paranoid, that's got to be pizza sauce."

"Why couldn't the pirate go see the movie?" Foxy said

The Chica animatronic put its hand over its eyes and groaned.

"Please don't…"

"It was rated Arrrrr! Hahahar! Get it!? Arrrr!"

'Splort'

Karl leapt back in shock, as opposed to Veronica, who had frozen in horror. After a few seconds of feeling something wet on her face, she walked around her husband to the nearest table. She grabbed a handful of napkins and wiped at her face. Veronica pulled them away, and saw that what had jutted out of the Foxy animatronic's mouth was mucus. She felt her stomach shift.

"Get Haley and get to the car…" Veronica managed to get out before she ran to the bathroom. Karl ran to the front of the store and picked up Haley.

"What!? Dad, where are we going?"

"We're leaving!"

"But I don't wanna!" Haley whined. "Freddy just started a new song!"

Karl managed to ignore her crying and carry her out of the restaurant, locking the two in the car. Veronica came out after a few minutes, her face wet and red from scouring it with hot water and soap, a bit of spittle and vomit still on the front of her dress.


	15. The store closes

_Two weeks later…_

Hall was not looking forward to talking to Faz again. He walked out of the Dining Area to the very back of the store where the main office was, where Faz could see what was going on in the store through the security cameras.

"Mr. Faz?"

"Another complaint, right?"

Faz could have seen everything that had gone on through the cameras; the parents getting too close to the animatronics or the animatronics getting too close to the parents, getting the unpleasant smell, sometimes seeing what looked like blood or mucus leaking out of the animatronics' mouth and eyes, and the parents taking their whining kids out, stopping only to leave a complaint at the front. Hall envied Faz for just having to deal with this from back here, while he had to take all of the abuse at the front.

"Well…yeah."

Faz sighed in irritation.

"Damn things just don't want to stay clean."

Hall really, really hoped that he wasn't going to be the one Faz had to try to clean off the animatronics again. No matter how much they tried to scrub out the animatronics fur and clean out the inside of their mouths (the fear of getting his hand bitten off while he was cleaning was even worse to Hall than the smell), no one could make the animatronics stay clean or keep them from smelling. It was the general consensus that something, like rats, probably tried to eat some stray cheese that had ended up on that animatronics, crawled inside, and got shredded and crushed by the animatronic parts. Faz wouldn't let them take the animatronics apart and clean out the insides because, as no one made these particular models anymore, no one had any idea how to safely take the animatronics apart and put them back together again.

Hall tried to sidle out of the room quietly. He was certain Faz knew he was still there, but was just ignoring him. That suited him just fine; maybe it meant that Faz was going to pick someone else for cleaning duty. As he was leaving however, he heard Faz mutter something.

"If I got to do this, at least I do it my way."

Hall didn't know what that meant and didn't care enough to ask Faz. It was about 7 pm, when there would normally be the most customers, though things had started to get really quiet at the restaurant again. Since there were no customers at the time, Hall decided to take a break, getting a root beer from the soda fountain and taking a seat in the Dining Area. When he went in, he saw Quint, another one of the employees sitting in front of the Show Stage and reading the paper, so Hall decided to join him.

"Hey Quint, what's up?"

Quint looked up from the paper and nodded to Hall.

"Nothin'. You cleaning the band again?"

"I don't know. I don't think so, at least. Fazzy didn't tell me to anyway."

"Huh. Good for you to get a break for once. Just your dumb luck that you work in the front and take the flak for all the nasty stuff in Freddy and the boys." Quint gestured to the animatronics behind him.

"Is working in the Kitchen any better?" Hall asked.

Quint shrugged. "I don't know. I don't have to talk to anyone, or deal with any of those bratty kids, but I kind of wish I didn't feel like I was cooking Styrofoam."

"Yeah well, that's work, isn't it?"

Quint rolled his eyes. "Yeah, ain't that the truth."

Hall nodded at the paper. "Anything good in there?"

"Nope. I only started reading cause I saw the store's name in here." Quint pointed to the title of the article in the back of the paper;

-Evidence Lost in Trial; Suspected Freddy Fazbear's child abductor released-

"Jeez." Hall said in disgust. "I can't believe we used to work with that guy."

"Yeah." Quint pointed to later on in the article. "At least the police were able to put him on a sex offender's register. He won't be working here again."

Hall grimaced and drained his root beer.

"I don't like thinking about that stuff, man. I mean, they never even found those kids."

"It doesn't really get much better in here, either." Quint pointed to one of the obituaries at the end of the paper. Hall leaned in and read the name.

" 'Carol Garen'. What about her?"

"Don't you remember her, man? She was that lady that kept on coming in here a few weeks ago. Remember? She was the Mom of two of those kids that Freakazoid lured into the back."

"What happened to her?"

Quint read further into the obituary.

"Looks like she killed herself. They found her hanging in her closet."

"Dang. That's…"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Hall and Quint fell over the table as they tried to get away from whatever was screaming behind them, all the while screaming themselves. The two ran away from the Dining Area, thinking that they were about to be attacked.

"What the hell is that!?"

"I don't know!"

Hall looked back at the Show Stage and saw what was screaming; Freddy. While Bonnie and Chica were trying to sing a rendition of "Staying Alive", Freddy was glitching out in a way Hall had never seen it before. It was screaming like it was being murdered, waving its arms around and shaking its head. The noise was like someone was drilling into Hall's ears.

"What the hell's wrong with Freddy?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"How do we get him to shut up? We got to turn him off somehow!" Hall shouted.

"I'm not going up there!" Quint shouted back.

"Rrrgh, dang it!" Hall started to run down the East Hall. "Boss! Boss, something's wrong with Freddy!"

Faz ran into Hall halfway. They could still hear Freddy screaming bloody murder.

"What the hell did you do?"

"Nothing! Freddy just started screaming!"

"God damn it!"

Faz ran out into the Dining Area, pushing past Quint who was cowering by one of the tables, ran onto the Show Stage and got behind Freddy, getting smacked in the face by Freddy's flailing arms. Faz got back up with a black eye and ran into Freddy, flipping a switch beneath the fur on the animatronic's back.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…."

Faz stood on the stage, panting.

"Son of a mother…"

Chica and Bonnie were still singing.

"Stayin' aliiiiiiii…"

"For crying out loud!" Faz shut the other two off and pointed to Hall and Quint. "You two turn off Foxy, we're closing for the night!"

Hall jumped into the Pirate Cove and flipped the switch on Foxy, who fortunately was in standby mode. Faz had flipped the sign on the front entrance to closed.

"So…uh…any idea what's wrong with Freddy?"

Faz glared at Hall and then threw his hands up.

"No. And at this point, I don't care."

"So, should we just go now?" Quint asked.

Faz turned to Quint and smirked.

"Yeah. You two can go. You can let everyone else know that they can go now too."

"Uh…alright." Quint turned and gave Hall a small grin at the knowledge that they could skip work early.

"You can take the rest of the night off, and the night after that, and the night after that, and everything else after that, because you're all done working here."

"Woah!" Hall held his hands up to Faz to try to stop him. "I told you, we didn't do anything!"

"I get that."

"Then why are you firing us?" Quint asked astounded.

"Oh, you're not fired." Faz said sarcastically. "Don't you worry about that. I'm closing the store."

"What? But…"

"I'm not dealing with some damn health inspector. At least this way, I can save face and maybe reopen some time down the road." Faz shouted and pointed at the animatronics. "And I am not dealing with those stupid old robots!"

…

Will?

…

Will, c'mon…

…

…Just…just leave him alone Peter.

…What happens now? What are they going to do with us?

I don't know. I'm scared.

I'm sorry guys…it's all my fault.

It's okay Greg, we know you didn't mean to spit on that woman…It's not your fault.

We've all been having that problem.

I hate it. I just hate having my old body in here with me.

Well…we'll be alright, right?

…

Will?

…

…We're going to be here forever, aren't we Puppet?

…

…

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza closed two months after the disappearance of the children, to the sadness of many other kids, but the satisfaction of many of the parents that had come to the restaurant. Fazbear Entertainment gave this comment:

"Safety is the utmost concern of Fazbear Entertainment. Once it became evident to the company that there was a potential health hazard from our animatronics, we of course closed immediately. As for the other, very unfortunate incident which was the responsibility of a former employee, Fazbear Entertainment denies any wrong doing. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza has always been a place of fun for children of all ages, and we will be certain to keep this dream alive, making our chain bigger, better, and safer than ever. I assure all our fans that Freddy Fazbear and his friends will be back soon."

The store was stripped of anything valuable for the time and put into storage, including the animatronics, though Fazbear Entertainment only intended to keep them for their spare parts. As the animatronics were carted out, for a brief few moments their empty eyes looked out into the stars. The men moving the animatronics boxed them up, put them next to each other inside a warehouse, shut out the lights, and walked out.


	16. New and Improved

By closing before there could be more investigations, Fazbear Entertainment had managed to save its reputation, but they knew that they had only done it just barely. This time, they couldn't take the risk that something was going to go wrong. They could not take the risk that someone like one of their former employees could cause another mess. For once, they had to make a serious effort to make the store safe.

Fazbear Entertainment began to install new animatronic technology into Freddy and his friends. One of the upgrades was advanced facial recognition software linked to the sex offender registry. The idea was that if for whatever reason a child predator was somehow able to get into the store, the animatronics would recognize the predator and alert the police. However, the facial recognition software was as far as the company got with improving the old animatronics before they decided that they were simply too ugly and smelled too bad to bother. It was also pointed out that many people had negative impressions of the store that were linked to the animatronics themselves, so even if they were fixed and cleaned up, many people would still be uneasy around them. Fazbear Entertainment needed a completely new slate, with new animatronics. The design team came up with new versions of the old animatronics, with a more streamlined, friendlier "Toy" appearance. Foxy in particular was given a complete do-over; one of the complaints that the parents had often made was how they felt uneasy with a robot armed with a hook hugging their children. So Foxy was rebranded as a clown, with clean white fur, something that the executives believed would be as nice, safe, and uncontroversial as possible. Bizarrely though, one of the measures meant to make Foxy a less frightening character resulted in one of the few controversies that the new store faced early on. In their redesign of Foxy, Fazbear Entertainment had changed the character into a female, believing that a female character would be considered safer by parents. However, the change wasn't entirely clear to everyone. While officially, Toy Foxy was female, employees of the company and previous fans had a tendency to refer to Foxy as a male, due to the fact that it was a replacement of a male character. Fans of the original Foxy the Pirate fox insisted that Toy Foxy was male, while newer fans of the franchise insisted that it was female (even though people didn't seem to realize that the character had no gender, as it was a robot.) This strange controversy resulted in a series of arguments and fights between children in the restaurant, convincing the executives to move Foxy into the new "Kid's Cove", a play area meant specifically for toddlers, who ideally wouldn't have those arguments.

To further improve on the old franchise, Fazbear Entertainment added a fifth animatronic. By this point, they realized that adding a new animal character would be too difficult and jilting to those who were still fans of the original characters, so they kept the design simple; the new animatronic was just a short, fat, smiling boy that would blow, tie, and hand out balloons to kids. While never given a specific name, customers and employees alike started to call it "Balloon Boy."

Frank Faz himself came up with another stroke of inspiration to implement to his store. Seeing the toy-like nature of the new animatronics, he finally found out a way to use the old Puppet, retrofitting it with an endoskeleton and installing it as a part of the new "Prize Corner". The idea would be that when the kids played the games and won, the Puppet would jump out of its box like a jack-in-the-box to randomly hand out a prize.

When the new and improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza opened, it was an instant success. Fazbear Entertainment was doing a good job of making people forget the past. The old animatronics were kept out of site of the customers, intended to be used mainly for spare parts. When Faz locked them away into storage, he doubted he would be seeing them again anytime soon. After all, why would he need spare parts on completely new animatronics? While he was right that the new animatronics didn't need spare parts, he did eventually find a use for the old animatronics in a way that he would have never predicted.


	17. The Mangle

"Darn it, not again…" Joel muttered to himself.

He had heard the sound of metal pieces breaking apart and ran to the Kid's Cove. As to be expected, the toddlers had taken apart Foxy, again. Two boys were hitting each other with one of Foxy's arms and legs, another was using the other arm to pick his nose, and a little girl was trying to feed Foxy's head pizza like a baby doll. The head, to Joel's discomfort, was still talking.

"Hey thethethethere kikikids! Wel-Welcome to the nenenenenew Frrrrrrrrrreddddy FazbearFazbearFazbear piiiiiiizaaaaaa!"

Joel reminded himself to stay calm, getting a hold of the kid's parents and asking them to get their kids to let go of the animatronic parts. While the parents of the boys acquiesced quickly enough, ("I'm so sorry, I was hoping that he'd behave!", "I'm sorry, I should have kept a closer eye on them!"), the parents of the girl did so reluctantly.

"What do you have against my daughter playing? It's not like you're not going to put it right back together for someone else's kids to do the exact same thing."

Eventually, while the parents were pulling their kids away, Joel managed to take away the animatronic parts from the complaining and crying of the children ("Hey, that's mine!") He and another employee carried the parts back to storage to put them back together later. Faz wasn't happy when he heard the news.

"Again? Why can't those stupid kids keep their hands to themselves? They did it with all the other animatronics? Heck, why can't their parents do something?"

Joel had heard this rant before, every time Foxy was taken apart. He waited for Faz to putter out, irritated at the answer that he knew was coming.

"So, what do you want me to do?"

Faz waved his hand dismissively.

"Just put the stupid thing back together and put it back into the Kid's Cove."

Joel sighed. "Alright." He was about to turn around when Faz continued his rant.

"Seriously, what is wrong with these kids?"

Joel shrugged. "They're just kids."

"Yeah, I get that. 'Kids will be kids.' They're going to destroy anything they can and stick it up their nose. I get that. What I don't get is why the parents just let them take the thing apart."

Joel didn't really know what to say at this, but he knew that he had to stick around until his boss let him go. Normally Faz liked to have someone around him when he ranted.

"Seriously though, what do the parents do when you tell them to take their kids away?"

"Usually they just do what I ask and take them away, but sometimes like today they'll want me to leave the kids alone."

"They expect us to just let the kids take the animatronics apart?" Faz asked incredulously.

Joel shrugged.

"They said that it's not like we're not going to put it back together again for someone else's kids to do the exact same thing."

Faz scowled.

"You know what? If that's their attitude, on second thought, don't put Foxy back together again. Just put the parts back out into the Kid's Cove and leave them there."

"You don't want me to fix it?"

Faz shrugged sarcastically. "It's like those morons said, 'why bother?'"

"What should I do if the parents complain tomorrow?" Joel was not looking forward to dealing with angry parents.

"Just tell them that that's what happens when parents don't watch their kids. Maybe then they'll stop breaking store property."

Joel did as he was told, ready for things to hit the fan the next day, but oddly, nothing happened. There were no complaints. The kids continuously took Foxy apart and put it back together again in bizarre ways, putting its arm where its head should have been and its head where its foot should have been, but that only made the kids laugh. Joel had no idea why, the thing looked creepy with how twisted it was, but still talking.

"Beeeeeeeeeee sure to play nice kikikids!"

Faz was as surprised as Joel to hear how things went, but was much happier about it. From that point on, he decided to make Foxy a permanent take-it-apart-and-put-it-together attraction. This was where Faz found a use for the old animatronics. He figured that if kids were so happy with using Foxy as a giant puzzle, why not add more pieces? Deciding that Freddy, as the face of the franchise, and Foxy, as the most popular character, should be left alone for now, Faz opted to take spare parts from Bonnie and Chica. At first he just took one arm each from the two, but then decided 'the heck with it', and took Chica's second arm and Bonnie's endoskeleton head.

The next day Foxy was in its most twisted and bizarre state yet. One of the feet had been lost, so the kids gave Foxy an extra arm for a leg, and then added another arm on the same joint. Where Foxy's head used to be, there was now a hand. Its left arm was missing a hand, but now had an additional arm (also without a hand) attached to the hand's original joint. On the right side, the kids had attached Foxy's head on another doubled up arm, sticking its bow tie in the middle, with the additional head attached to the end of another arm on the same joint. The Foxy head now only had a right eye, the left eye being put into the extra head. Incredibly though, Foxy could still talk, but only occasionally, as its voice box was now damaged. The employees, understandably disturbed, stopped calling the animatronic Foxy, and gave it a new nickname; the Mangle.


	18. Where's the Rest of me?

The Puppet knew that it should be happy. For the first time since it had been murdered, it was now a part of Freddy Fazbear's, able to interact with other kids like Will and his friends used to. However, its body did not carry the same sensations that enabled the other spirits to be able to enjoy life. It didn't really tell a difference.

After the store closed, the Puppet left its box and wandered around its new home. It passed by Toy Freddy, who was searching for sources of sound to indicate customers it could entertain.

"Hey there! Let's put that frown upside down!"

The Puppet floated past Toy Freddy, seeing it only as an empty shell in the same way Toy Freddy only saw it as a sad face to change. It didn't matter. The Puppet was out for a different reason. It couldn't get bored, so staying in its box all night would have been fine to it, had it not been detecting some unsettling disturbances in the Ethereal. It came to the Kid's Corner where it had detected the disturbances. Mangle, seeing a crying child in its vicinity, tried to fulfill its programming.

"Oh lololook! There's a-a-a-time to plplalaynenew friend!"

Under normal circumstances, the Puppet would have felt nothing for this soulless machine…but it wasn't so sure that it didn't have a soul. The fact that there was something that the Puppet was unsure about was disconcerting enough, but this…

Puppet…where's the rest of me?

It was bad enough to hear Peter's call through the Ethereal, but his spirit wasn't the only one here. Through what could be called its eyes, the Puppet noticed two of the Mangle's arms flailing around, grabbing at random objects and pulling them towards itself as if it was blind. The Puppet realized that those arms had come from the Chica animatronic. A third arm flailed around, but its essence matched that of the second head, Bonnie's old head. The result was that the Mangle was unable to stand or coordinate itself properly, pushing itself one way, and then another as the arms fought against each other to slide across the floor.

As the Puppet observed, it realized that the parts taken from Bonnie and Chica to be incorporated into the Mangle had Peter and Lucy's spirits imbued in them. However, the spirits weren't complete. The fragment of Peter's spirit could see (at least through one eye), hear, and interact with its environment through touch, but only with one arm. The fragment of Lucy's spirit could only interact by touch; it couldn't see or speak. Neither spirit had dominant control over the body, only the parts that had originally been on their respective bodies.

Stop moving! Please stop!

"DDDDanance? Why I'dplplay nicelove…!"

Nothing like this had ever existed before, at least as far as the Puppet knew. However, the situation of Mangle presented some more troubling ideas; the Puppet went to the Parts/Service Area.

It occurred to the Puppet that one didn't have to have its connection to the Ethereal to have an idea of the state of the children's spirits. The state of the animatronics was a good indication. It had spent nearly years with them, sensing as their spirits decayed along with their animatronic bodies, bits falling away and being lost as they spent more and more time alone in the dark.

The Freddy animatronic turned its head as the Puppet came through the doorway.

Hey everyone! It's the Puppet! Everyone say hi to the Puppet. Say hi to the Puppet Foxy!

The Foxy animatronic remained where it was, standing and motionless and staring at the floor.

C'mon, Foxy. Say hi to the magic Puppet.

No response.

Say hi to the Puppet Foxy!

The Foxy animatronic twitched a bit.

…Hi.

So Puppet. Have you been having a fun time out there with your new friends?

Will, they're just robots.

Wow! Really? So are we. But I bet they're a lot nicer, aren't they? Don't you think that they look a lot nicer, Foxy?

Greg didn't respond.

I bet that new Foxy is real nice, huh? Isn't the new Foxy nice, Puppet?

Will, stop. I'm here to see Peter and Lucy.

Peter and Lucy? Who are they? You don't think that the Puppet's talking about Bonnie and Chica do you, Foxy?

I know you're not happy, but I'm here to help. I wanted to know what has happened to Peter and Lucy.

The withered Freddy animatronic gestured with his microphone to the other side of the room.

Well, they're right there.

The Puppet had known where Lucy and Peter were, it had just been hoping to get somewhere with Will. That would need to wait for later. As the Puppet analyzed the two, it realized that Peter and Lucy were in much greater need. Bonnie was missing a large portion of his head and its left arm, while Chica was missing its hands, its mouth hanging open and the remains of its arms spread outwards.

Peter? Lucy? It's me.

The Bonnie animatronic turned to the Puppet. There was no response other than it facing the Puppet with the remains of its eyes glowing red in the back of its face.

Peter, I'm here.

The Bonnie animatronic reached out with its right arm, clutching at the air in front of the Puppet. This brought up something the Puppet had feared ever since it saw the Mangle. It floated to the side, but Bonnie continued to reach out in the direction the Puppet had last spoken to it.

Peter?

The Bonnie animatronic swung to the side, grabbing onto the Puppet's hand and holding it in place. It was fortunate that the Puppet's fabric body gave so easily, as Bonnie would have crushed a more solid hand.

Peter, can you not see me?

The Bonnie animatronic kept its hold on the Puppet. It wasn't looking at the Puppet's face, though the Puppet's voice didn't necessarily come from a particular part of its body as much as it simply came from it as a whole. The Puppet could sense Peter still inside of the Bonnie animatronic, though he had lost something.

Peter?

The Bonnie animatronic shook its head.

Can you not speak either?

Again, Bonnie shook its head. It let go and let its arm droop to its side, its head nodding back down.

The Puppet was able to understand things that almost nothing else could, but it was difficult even for it to completely understand what had happened to Peter's spirit. When the Puppet had imbued the animatronics with the children's spirits, the spirits had spread throughout their new bodies. A spirit isn't concentrated in a single part as people might often assume them, balled up in their heads or their chests; a spirit is as much, if not more a part of a body as its blood. When Bonnie's head with its eyes and mouth had been taken away, so had Peter's ability to see and speak. It was not just his ability to see the physical world that had been stolen, but the spiritual as well.

Peter, I'm sorry that this happened to you.

Peter didn't respond, at least in any way the Puppet could understand. The Bonnie animatronic remained where it was slumped over. The Puppet turned its attention to Lucy.

Lucy, are you alright?

The Chica animatronic didn't move. It only stared out into space.

Lucy.

I'm ugly.

Lucy…

I'm disgusting.

Lucy, this isn't even your body…

Look at me!

For Lucy's sake, the Puppet was silenced.

At least when I was at the old restaurant, the kids there liked me! But now…just look at me…

The Puppet had no measure of what looked attractive, though it was aware of the disgust and unease shown to Lucy when employees came to the Parts and Service room and saw the Chica animatronic.

I…I still feel them…

Feel what?

My hands…I still feel my hands…They're bunched up, and I can't let go…I don't want to look at my hands…I don't want to see what they're like now.

The Puppet looked at the exposed wiring in the Chica animatronic's arms where its hands had been pulled out. It couldn't see or sense anything there that matched what Lucy was talking about, but this it could understand. Lucy was experiencing something akin to a "phantom limb" sensation, continuing to feel a part of her body that had been removed. Even with as bizarre and twisted as these animatronics were, they were similar enough to the human body to be able to experience the same phenomenon.

At least we aren't in the dark anymore.

You aren't. We are.

You can still walk around the store…

No one wants to see me. I don't want anyone to see me…

The Puppet, convinced that it would be fruitless to try to comfort these children now, started to leave, but was stopped again by Lucy.

Why did you do this to us?

Do what?

Why couldn't you just let us die?

You weren't moving on. If I didn't put you into another body, you would have just been a spirit, stuck in the Ethereal.

It had to be better than this.

I know that it's bad for you now, but you must believe me when I tell you that it's better.

The Puppet heard Will through the Ethereal.

Say magic Puppet, do you know where the rest of them is?

The Puppet ignored Will. It didn't want to make things more difficult for Peter and Lucy. However, when the Puppet wouldn't answer, Lucy spoke.

Where are they? Where are my hands?

Even Peter was directing his attention towards the Puppet, who gave in. There wouldn't be much of a point to trying to hide the truth from them anyway. They had already started to walk around by themselves again, and it might be better if they found out from the Puppet than finding out for themselves.

Your parts have been incorporated into the new Foxy animatronic.

The Chica animatronic turned to Foxy.

So it's your fault that I'm like this, isn't it?

Greg turned the Foxy animatronic to face the corner away from everyone.

It's because of you that they took my hands. You made me ugly.

The Foxy animatronic was twitching violently. Greg's misery was becoming difficult for the Puppet to deal with.

Children started to take apart Toy Foxy, and it got to the point that the boss decided to just let them, adding your parts to it. No one even calls it Foxy anymore. Now they call it the Mangle.

Lucy and Peter's resentment of Greg didn't go away. The Puppet hoped that with time, they'd see sense and realize that Greg had nothing to do with their situation. Greg wasn't in any situation to open himself to the Puppet. There was however, one more that the Puppet wanted to check up on.

Will, how's Robbie?

For once, Will shut up. The Puppet sensed his anger and sadness, but at least it brought him back into a more coherent state. Will looked to a box next to the Freddy animatronic. The Puppet peered in, seeing the Golden Freddy suit bunched up. The Puppet could sense Robbie's spirit inside, the same crying, lonely spirit that hadn't changed ever since the murders.

Robbie.

There was no response.

Robbie.

Leave him alone.

The Freddy animatronic stood between the Golden Freddy suit and the Puppet. The Puppet backed away. Even with as twisted as Will had become, it was good to see that at least in his relationship with his brother, Will hadn't changed. Robbie was the only thing Will could hold onto right now. However, the Puppet couldn't think of anything to do for Robbie. He had sealed himself away deep within the suit, blind and deaf to everything around him, perhaps even his brother. The Puppet had always defended his choice in placing the spirits of the children inside of the suits, sparing them the fate of wandering the Ethereal, but Robbie was the only one who the Puppet had doubts about whether it had done right by. As the Puppet left the Parts and Service room, his attention was still focused on the brothers.

It's okay Robbie. I'm still here.


	19. -ERROR-

Toy Freddy recorded positive happiness levels throughout the store. Customers were pleased and attendance had been high. Now though at 3:00 PM, there were fewer customers in the store. From the Show Stage, Toy Freddy attempted to locate the area with the greatest likelihood of finding customers, monitoring noise levels. Eventually, it was able to pick up something.

"What?...Fritz…just calm down and tell it to me again…"

Having identified a noise, Toy Freddy followed it to its source to the front desk. It identified a store employee; Name: Joel Graham, Position: Head Day Guard. Joel was talking on the phone.

"Fritz, you're not making sense. That shouldn't be possible. That thing's years old, we've taking pieces from them! It shouldn't be able to walk around."

Toy Freddy detected negative happiness levels.

"Hey there, buddy! It's great to have you here!"

This got Joel's attention.

"Yeah, it's Freddy. He thinks I'm sad, give me a second…"

Joel turned to Freddy and grinned. This brought his happiness levels back up to green for Toy Freddy, who backed away. However, as Joel was the only person making noise in Toy Freddy's vicinity, it remained in the general area.

"Look…Fritz, calm down. Even if the old animatronics do for some reason activate, they're not going to do anything…You just got to tough it out Fritz…Alright, alright, look. I'll see if Mr. Faz is willing to do a transfer, but for now, just try to deal with it. Give it a few days, and I'm sure things will be fine…That's the spirit. See you tonight at 11:30." Joel put the phone down. He looked at Toy Freddy and smiled, giving another positive indication of happiness. "Go easy on the night guard Freddy, he's not used to you guys."

"Huhuhu! I'm glad you're here!"

The employee seemed happy enough and would be in a better state to attract customers. Still in free-roaming mode, Toy Freddy started to wander around the store in search for other customers. It was only 3:10 PM, and it was unlikely that anyone would come to the store until 4:30 PM at the earliest, but this was not a factor programmed into Toy Freddy's thinking, so it continued to wander aimlessly. Eventually, it detected faint noise coming from the Main Hallway. Heading towards it, Toy Freddy was able to see someone slipping into Party Room 2. It wasn't able to see the person's face, but it had detected a purple uniform, denoting a store employee. Toy Freddy followed the employee, lacking any customers to interact with. It entered the Party Room, but could not locate the employee. Toy Freddy did a scan, but could not find any trace. So, it turned around and began to walk away. When its back was turned though, it detected a hard drive being inserted into the back of its head. A file began to download.

-seg000:DD000000 50 50 50 override 5F 9B 0Ah-seg000:0DD00000 50 content H6 Y7 0Ah-seg000:00DD0000 50 50 505 happy birthday G3# % %AFDFAT#% #^$ ^$- seg000:DD000000 50 50 50 override 5F 9B 0Ah-seg000:0DD00000 50 content H6 Y7 0Ah-seg000:00DD0000 50 50 505 happy birthday G3- seg000:DD000000 50 50 50 override 5F 9B 0Ah-seg000:0DD00000 50 content H6 Y7 0Ah-seg000:00DD0000 50 50 505 happy birthday G3-

-VIRUS DETECTED. MASSIVE ERROR ACCUMULATION. SYSTEM RESTART.-

…

\- MOTOR FUNCTIONS: STABLE-

-PROGRAMMED PHRASES: RECOVERED-

-FACIAL RECOGNITION SOFTWARE: MALFUNCTIONING-

-SEX OFFENDER DATABASE LINK: MALFUNCTIONING-

-WARNING: VIRUS TRANSFERRED TO CENTRAL FAZBEAR STORE SYSTEM; DANGER OF INFECTION OF OTHER ANIMATRONIC UNITS-


	20. Nowhere to Hide

Greg needed to be alone. He couldn't stand to be in the same room as his friends. Seeing Bonnie and Chica made him feel guilty because Foxy hadn't been taken apart. Lucy wanted to be by herself more than Greg did, but she didn't want to leave the Parts and Service Room more. Peter couldn't talk, so Greg could never tell what he was thinking or what was bothering him. Will was the worst now though. He had used to be Greg's friend; he was the first kid to be Greg's friend when his family had moved. Now though, Greg wasn't sure if this was the same Will Greg used to know. Greg didn't like that Will kept on calling him Foxy, and it bothered him even more when Will called himself Freddy. Greg didn't want to be in this suit. He didn't want to be Foxy.

The Puppet was the only one who hadn't really changed. It was the only one that was still nice to Greg. The last time that the Puppet had come to see them though, Will made it so that Greg didn't feel well enough to talk to the Puppet. So, Greg had decided that he'd go and talk to the Puppet. It would be someone at least.

Foxy heard a faint clicking noise.

-CUSTOMER DETECTED-

-TRACKING-

The new system was annoying to Greg, but he had gotten used to having text flash inside of his head by now. It was the same kind of thing back in the first Fazbear's. Still though, the text wasn't going to go away until Foxy checked on whatever was making the noise, which, judging from where the noise had come from, Greg guessed to be the night guard. That was going to be a problem. The last time Greg had seen the night guard, he had flashed a light right at Foxy's eyes from his office. It made Foxy go wonky and take a few steps back to his starting point from the Parts/Service room. Greg hadn't seen the night guard clearly; he couldn't distinguish anything about him other than that purple shirt. Greg didn't like the color purple. It made him think of bad things that he didn't want to think about. That was one of the reasons why he had been so scared when he was at the first Fazbear's; purple, everywhere. It was constantly in his face, making Greg think bad thoughts, making him think back to…Greg stopped himself before he got that far. He had managed to live with purple, but he still didn't like it. The night guard was just going to be something that he had to deal with. Greg thought that if he was quieter this time, he could slip through the main hallway. Once he did that, he could work his way to the Prize Corner past the new show stage (Greg knew the layout of the store even if he hadn't ever moved very far beyond the Parts/Service room because Foxy had a map downloaded into his head with the new programming.) It occurred to Greg that the Prize Corner wasn't too far from the Kid's Cove where the new Foxy was. Greg didn't want to see it though, especially with how the Puppet had described it. He didn't want to see Peter's head looking at him. That made Greg reconsider going out, but he had been alone for a very long time in the dark. Greg needed someone that didn't scare him or make him feel bad.

Greg started to creep through the main hall. He heard a click. Thinking the night guard saw him, Greg turned Foxy's head down towards the main office. Foxy performed a facial scan on the night guard; something that the animatronics did anytime they saw someone. The scan came out.

-CHILD PREDATOR DETECTED-

Child predator? What did that mean? Greg thought that he had heard that word before. He thought to himself. He had heard that word when he was at the first Fazbear's. It was a word that Greg had heard a lot of times, now that he thought about it. There were police, employees, even parents that had talked about it. Every time they had talked about it, Greg remembered that they had been talking about him and his friends. They were talking about…

Greg tried to stop it, but the thought was coming. There was something else, something from Foxy…

…

"Hey Foxy, what's new on the plank?"

…

Purple.

Child predator.

The Purple Man was in the office. The person that had tricked them all and hurt them, and left them like this. All the pain that Greg had felt, both from himself and from his friends, was because of the Purple Man. Where was the night guard? Unless…was he...was the night guard the Purple Man? Something had to be wrong…why hadn't Greg seen him earlier? Why hadn't any of the other animatronics given them a warning? Why hadn't the Puppet?

At first, Greg wanted to run away and hide. He had to get away before the Purple Guy found him. He started to move Foxy's legs and walk. He bumped into someone and fell into one of the Party Rooms. Greg almost screamed out, but stopped when he saw it was Toy Freddy. It was the first time that Greg had actually met Will's replacement. Toy Freddy only gave Foxy a look before refocusing on the Purple Man. Greg received data transferred from Toy Freddy.

-CHILD PREDATOR DETECTED-

-ERROR: POLICE CONTACT DISABLED-

While the two animatronics communicated, The Purple Man looked out from the office and flashed his light, most likely guessing that Toy Freddy had come his way. Toy Freddy got reset, and when the light was turned off, it had walked away. Foxy however had not been reset, having avoided looking directly into the light.

So what was he supposed to do? Greg just wanted to go back into the Parts/Service room and hide…but the Purple Man would find him there too, Greg knew it. He would find him and hurt him again.

Greg couldn't stay here, and he couldn't hide. There was nothing to do. Foxy grabbed at its head and curled up in the fetal position. Greg stated to panic. From the office, he could hear the constant clicking as the Purple Man cycled through the cameras. Sooner or later, he was going to get to a camera that showed Foxy. When Greg realized that, he scooted back out into the hall. Nowhere to hide except right in front of the Purple Man, and as soon as he looked up, he'd see Greg. The Purple Man would find him if he stayed, and he would find him if he went back. So, did that mean that the only way was forward? It was crazy, but Greg started to get an idea. Could Foxy stop the Purple Man? Could it, maybe…just maybe…hurt the Purple Man the same way he had hurt Greg? Greg didn't want to go near the Purple Man, but the more he thought about it, the more he thought that there was nothing else he could do. He had to get the Purple Man before the Purple Man got him. Greg didn't want to, but there was no other choice.

Greg forced himself to take steps forward, one at a time. He got pass the first two Party Rooms. The Purple Man still hadn't looked up. Greg knew that if the Purple Man saw him, he wouldn't be able to move. The text kept on flashing.

-CHILD PREDATOR DETECTED-

He couldn't let the Purple Man know he was here. Foxy reached the next two Party Rooms. Each step was getting harder to take. He didn't want to go into the office. He wanted to go back to the Parts and Service room where it was safe, but the flashing text kept on coming up:

-CHILD PREDATOR DETECTED-CHILD PREDATOR DETECTED-CHILD PREDATOR DETECTED-

It wasn't safe. Nowhere was safe with the Purple Man here. Greg forced himself onward.

-CHILDPREDATORDETECTEDCHILDPREDATORDETECTEDCHILDPREDATORDETECTED CHILDPREDATORDETECTEDCHILDPREDATORDETECTED CHILDPREDATORDETECTED-

Greg reached the end of the hall, and realized he couldn't move his feet. Foxy literally couldn't move his feet forward. He couldn't go into the office. He couldn't go where it was light and where the Purple Man could see him. There was nothing he could do. Still in the dark, Greg had another panic attack; Foxy grabbed its head and curled up in the fetal position. In his panic, Greg got a mad idea; maybe, if he ran at the Purple Man, he'd be able to get past his fear. He could get the Purple Man before the Purple Man saw him. It would be like jumping off of the spring board; you just had to do it all at once. Foxy took a few steps back. Foxy crouched.

At the worst possible time, the Purple Man looked up. He didn't even look suspicious; he just looked bored. He flashed his light down the hallway. It illuminated Foxy crouching.

…

He's here. The Purple Man is here. He's going to hurt me again.

You can't be right, dummy. How could he be here?

But…yeah…yeah, the police got him, didn't they? Locked him up and threw away the key, right?

They let him go, don't you remember? Why don't any of you believe me?

No…no…I don't want the Purple Man to hurt me again...

Will, where are you going? He's out there! We need to hide!

No. The Purple Man hurt Robbie. I'm going to make him sorry.


	21. Vulpes Vulpes

"Happy Birthday Ben!" Valerie and Vince said. The twins handed their present to Ben, an X-men Wolverine action figure.

"Thanks guys!" Ben's eyes widened in joy as he looked on his favorite superhero. While he was admiring the toy, Vince grabbed at his little brother Hayden and muttered quietly.

"Put it back."

Hayden glowered at the twins and took out the salt shaker he had put into his pocket. He was always stealing stuff like this, so Vince and Val had gotten used to looking over to their shoulder at their little brother to make sure he didn't get into trouble. Hayden stole the weirdest stuff too; why would he need a salt shaker? Their Mom called it klepto-something. She had wanted to come, but she and their father had been busy today for Ben's birthday party at Freddy Fazbear's, so they had to promise to keep an eye on Hayden, taking away a lot of their fun. The three of them were with Ben's other two friends, Gina and Liam. Ben had gotten a matching Magneto action figure, a Slugger baseball bat, a book on dinosaurs, and a new pair of roller skates. After they had given their gifts, the kids went and played arcade games until they ran out of tokens (for a grand total of 100 tickets won, Val and Vince were able to exchange for an eye patch and a rubber chicken.) Ben managed to convince his parents to stay for a bit longer so they could enjoy watching Freddy and his friends play. Hayden was mesmerized by the talking animals enough that Val and Vince felt they could leave him with Ben's parents while they looked around the place. They had heard a lot about the new restaurant and the characters, but had never gotten a chance to see it for themselves.

"Where do you want to go?"

"I want to see Foxy. I heard that they made him really different here." Vince said.

"I heard that Foxy's a girl now." Val replied.

"Nu-uh!" Vince said appalled at the possibility that someone had changed the gender of his favorite character.

"Ya-huh!" Val answered with equal determination.

"I bet you're wrong!" Vince ran off to the back of the restaurant with Val in tow. When they arrived at the new Kid's Cove though, the twins weren't certain about what they had originally been arguing about.

"What happened to Foxy?"

Foxy didn't look friendly anymore. Now it just looked scary. It had too many arms, one too many heads, and looked less like a fox and more like a slinky. Val tugged on the sleeve of the employee watching over the kids.

"Excuse me, what happened to Foxy?"

The woman shrugged. "Kids took it apart."

Vince looked horrified at Foxy.

"Aren't you going to fix him?"

"Foxy's a 'take-it-apart-and-put-it-together' attraction now. She's mostly for the little kids." She pointed to some toddlers that the twins had overlooked, crowding around Foxy and taking parts away from it. It was still talking.

"Hehehehey kikids? Are yoyoyou haviiiinnnngggg ffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnn?"

Val felt like she was going to throw up. Looking at Foxy made Vince shiver.

"You two are probably too young to be here." The woman said. The twins silently agreed and left the Kid's Cove.

"How could they do that to Foxy?" Val asked dejectedly.

"I want to go back to the table." Vince added.

The two went back to their table, but could only find Ben's parents.

"There you two are." Ben's Mom said. "Where's your little brother though?"

The twins looked at each other apprehensively.

"Wasn't he with you?"

"No! He just vanished a few minutes after you two left." She looked around, frantic and worried. Ben's Dad was rushing past them, looking over the rest of the Dining Area.

"Where's Ben?" Vince asked.

"I don't know! I looked away for a minute and then he, Gina, and Liam all vanished!"

Ben's Dad rushed off to look through the rest of the store. Ben's Mom was stuck with the twins. She looked from them, back to her husband.

"Look, I want you two to just stay here. Don't move. We're going to find everyone and leave."

Val and Vince were left sitting at the table alone, stewing in guilt.

"I don't like this." Val said.

"Mom told us to keep an eye on Hayden…" Vince added. Suddenly, he got up from the table. "C'mon."

"Are you sure? Ben's Mom told us to stay here."

"And Mom told us that Hayden was our responsibility. C'mon, we'll find Hayden and get back before Ben's Mom and Dad come back."

Val shrugged. She didn't want to upset their Mom. The two didn't get too far though before they realized a problem.

"So…where would Hayden go?" Vince asked.

"Well…he's Hayden right? He probably went wherever he could get stuff he could stick into his pockets."

"So…" Vince looked around with Val until he spotted the Prize Corner. There had to be a bunch of stuff there that Hayden would have wanted. "What about over there?"

Val and Vince went over, but couldn't find anyone that looked like Hayden. They asked some of the other kids that had congregated around the Prize Corner, but none of them had seen their little brother. The twins would have asked a grown up, but it didn't seem like any of the store employees were stationed here. Val and Vince started to get worried.

"What do we do now?"

Vince spotted a large gift-wrapped box. Another one of Hayden's quirks was that he had a tendency to hide for apparently no reason (though the twins had realized that he often just wanted a convenient place to hide the stuff that he stole.) The twins approached it, and something burst out of the box. The twins screamed out in shock, until they realized a prize tune was playing. What looked like a mime had popped out of the box, holding another gift box. The box opened up, revealing a bow tie, like the one that the new Foxy wore. The twins stared at the Puppet, which remained frozen in place, offering the prize. The situation was so bizarre that the two had forgotten why they were there in the first place.

"Uh…do you want it?" Vince asked.

"…Sure…" Val picked the pink bow tie out of the box.

The prize tune played again, but then faded out as the radio fizzled. It looked like the Puppet was stuck.

Val and Vince stared at the Puppet. To Val, it still looked as if the Puppet was staring at them. Awkwardly, Val stuck the bow tie on the front of her shirt.

"What do we do now?"

"VeeVee!"

The twins finally let their breath out when they heard Hayden's nickname for them. They turned and saw him running up to them excitedly, holding a handful of tokens. The twins took hold of Hayden from both of his shoulders.

"Hayden, where have you been?"

"Where did you get those tokens?"

Hayden didn't try to hide the tokens from them, so he wasn't acting how he normally did when he stole something. He rolled his eyes in exasperation at his brother and sister's nagging tone.

"I got bored, so I went looking for you. I didn't steal anything!"

Val looked at Hayden disbelievingly.

"Honest!"

"You know Ben's Mom and Dad got worried about you, right? Why did you run off by yourself?"

"Why did you?" Hayden countered.

"We're older."

"We were with each other, so it was okay."

"Well, I wasn't alone either." Hayden said. He pointed towards the Main Hallway. "Freddy was with me."

The twins saw Freddy waving in the distance from the Main Hall, but this Freddy didn't look quite right.

"Why is Freddy yellow?"

The detail didn't seem to matter to Hayden. He clutched at the tokens in his hands and jumped happily.

"Freddy gave me these! He says that there's better games where you can get more tickets for less tokens!"

The twins thought the same thing. More tickets for less tokens? And Freddy just gave them out? If they still had tokens, Ben's Mom and Dad wouldn't make them leave. But when they thought about Ben's parents, they remembered what Ben's Mom had told them to do.

"Hayden, Ben's Mom wanted us to stay at the table. We should get back there." Val said.

"She can't find Ben, Gina, or Liam. We shouldn't keep her waiting." Vince added.

Hayden frowned and pointed back at Freddy angrily.

"But Freddy said that Ben and his friends are already playing!"

"Freddy knows where Ben is?" The twins looked at each other. If they could get Ben and his friends all together, that would make things a lot easier for Ben's parents. Maybe if they found the others, Ben's parents might be happy enough to let them stay a bit longer. From the Main Hall, the twins saw Golden Freddy crossing his arms and tapping his wrist, though it looked so hoaky that they could tell that he didn't mean to be mean by it.

"You know what?" Hayden said. "I don't care. I'm going to go and play more games and get more stuff!" and he ran off.

"Hayden, wait!"

Now there wasn't much more of a choice. They couldn't afford to lose Hayden again, so the twins ran off after him with Golden Freddy.


	22. SAVETHEM

Will?

…

Will? Greg? Anyone?

What? Leave me alone.

You need to stop him…the Purple Man is here…I don't know what he did…but I can't move…You need to stop him…he has children with him.

The Purple Man?

Please, you're the only one that can stop him.

…Alright…I'll stop him. I'll make him sorry.

…

The withered Freddy animatronic left the Parts and Service room. The few kids that were still in the store this late tried to run up to it excitedly to hug it and play with it, but when they saw wiring and gears sticking out of the animatronic, they froze and backed away. Freddy ignored them and continued through the store. An engineer would be confused by the animatronics actions; it was ignoring any noises in its vicinity, so it wasn't following any discernible programming. The withered Freddy animatronic looked from one end of the store, down where the Main Office was, looked down the other way towards the Dining Area and Show Stage, and headed towards the latter. It stopped short of entering the Dining Area though. It stopped in the middle of the hall, analyzing the doors on the left. It slowed its pace, taking its time as it searched through them for something.

Freddy registered someone approaching from the other side of the hall. It registered a Purple shirt, but its facial scanners glitched out. Suddenly, it froze in place, its software glitching out almost entirely.


	23. Grown-Up-Boy Dumpster-Sea-Bird

There was Val, and there was Vince, but neither could really tell the difference between each other and themselves. They were smashed together, heads where arms should have been, legs where arms should have been; there was simply too much.

Jharā.

The house got painted. Mr. Police, could you take us home?

Jharā.

Things started to become clearer. The spirits began to claim different parts of their vessel, allowing them more coherence. The twins realized that they weren't alone. There were two others in the room.

Puppet? What did you do?

Where is Easter's light?

There was still too much to see and too many voices. Finally, another presence took hold of the twins and their carry ons.

Stop. You must calm down.

A picture came through.

 _"_ _Hehehehey kikids? Are yoyoyou haviiiinnnngggg ffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnn?"_

We are still in Italy.

You need to pull yourselves together. Look at me.

The twins looked and saw the Puppet from the Prize Corner, floating in the air.

The closet's door under the bed is open! The sweater is a monster! It is! No strings!

I'm not here to hurt you. I want to help you understand what has happened.

The school is bad, the teachers are toys. They have no strings. Jharā.

…

Something was very wrong here. The condition of the spirits in the Mangle was even more twisted than the last time the Puppet had seen the animatronic. The twin's spirits were confused and scared. They weren't making any sense, though the Puppet sensed that the twins were trying to.

…

It's difficult to understand you. I'll need to continue as if you were one of the others. But your circumstance is different. In order for you to be able to understand what has happened, you will need to look at each other.

Our windows are dirty…

The twins turned their heads at the same moment to where they thought the other was.

Vince saw the new Foxy staring at him in the face with its one eye.

Val saw an animatronic head staring at her with one eye.

Both twins screamed.

A snake is biting our doors! Jharā! Jharā! Jharā!

You must calm down.

The twins turned to the Puppet. As they turned, they saw the opposite head turn. They turned back to each other.

Rats live in the wet house…the rats and the snakes are in the church…

Just…calm down…Are you able to speak to me?

The heads rolled over to the Puppet.

Dōla…no strings…The door has no hinges!

I'm sorry. I don't think I can understand you. I will try to explain your situation…

Jharā.

Please calm down…You were killed by the Purple Man. I had to put you two in this body. I…don't know if it was the best thing for me to do. It was the only vessel that could hold two spirits at once.

Poor plum…mean mauve…bad Barney…bad bad bad baron bad Barney… jharā… jharā… jharā… Jharā!

I am sorry for what has happened to you. I tried to warn you. I tried to stop the Purple Man. He was ready though. I am sorry.

The Mangle's heads curled and twisted, the eyes rolling around in their sockets as they passed over the Mangle's body.

There were no strings on Elmo when he threw out Oscar's garbage can.

You weren't moving on. None of you were.

The house had no strings to follow to the X-men.

One of them was younger. He seemed very close to you.

Both of the Mangle's heads snapped up, staring at the Puppet.

Horse food in the wolf's house?

Do…you want to see him?

The Mangle tried to claw its way towards the Puppet.

The horse isn't eating strings!

I'm not certain you can move.

The Mangle tried to push itself up, but its hydraulics weren't in the right order anymore. For a while, it writhed around on the floor like a beetle that had been flipped over on its back. Eventually, the arms began to grab at nearby objects. When they grabbed onto something solid or heavy enough, the Mangle was able to use them as anchors to pull itself. It used this form of locomotion to drag itself after the Puppet as it left the Kid's Cove. The Puppet stopped in the Game Area, in front of the Balloon Boy.

Hayden, your brother and sister are here.

The Balloon Boy turned to the Puppet, and then looked down.

No. No! I want my brother and sister! That's not them! Where are they?

The horse is too fat to leave the wolf's house?

The Puppet looked from Hayden to the twins, trying to understand who to address first.

Hayden…this is Vince and Val…

No…I don't want them to be…it's not fair.

The house will keep the horse safe from the wolf!

The Mangle's heads looked from the Balloon Boy to the Puppet.

He was the smallest, so I thought that this vessel would be good for him.

The Mangle dragged itself over to the Balloon Boy.

The horse and the wolf sleep in different rooms…

The Balloon Boy was facing away from the Mangle, but it looked down at it.

…I'm sorry VeeVee…I'm so sorry…


	24. Take it Apart

The young children were enamored by Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. They loved the bright colors decorating the place and the cheerful music played by the dancing animals. At that age, the toddlers were still too young to have any doubts that Freddy Fazbear was anything but a magic talking bear. Their favorite animal though was Foxy. Now, they still saw Foxy as a living creature, but unfortunately, children that young have a problem with seeing things beyond themselves. They only really develop a sense of empathy from age 5 to 8. To give you an idea of this, a toddler may sit himself in front of a TV in a way that makes it so that no one else can watch. They're not being intentionally rude; they just don't know any better. For this reason, young children may sometimes hurt animals like dogs by pulling on their ears or doing other things that make them curious but unfortunately harm other living things. So, when the toddlers saw Foxy, they saw it as a furry animal combined with a toy. The Foxy animatronic, already mangled, was able to give out one sound before the toddlers fell on it.

"PlPlPlPlayayayay nnnnnnnnnniiiiicccccccccccceeee kkkkkkiddsssss!"

…

The mice are in the Rubics cube.

"Ararararare you havinginging funfun?"

The hand puppet is on fire.

"ReReReRemembeber, kikikids! FFFFooxxxxxxxxyyyyyyy lllllloooooovvvvvvveeesssss youyouyouyouyou!"

The mice's cartwheels cut through the windows.

"PlPlPlay nicenice PlayPlayPlayPlayPlay niiiiiiiiiiiiiccccccceee kikikidssssssssssssssssssssss!"

The clown's mousetrap doesn't work.

"EatEatEatEat…zzz"

The mice have purple fur.

…

About an hour after Freddy Fazbear's Pizza closed, the night guard Nate noticed the Puppet and Balloon Boy moving together, or at least saw them standing in the Game Corner, and then the Prize Corner, and finally the Kid's Cove. The two stood in front of the Mangle, which lay crumpled on the floor in a new configuration.

Valerie? Vince? Your brother is here to see you.

VeeVee, are you alright?

…

Please…c'mon guys, say something…

…The Rubics cube's shapes don't match. Mean mouse.

From Balloon Boy, Hayden communicated with the Puppet.

Do you think…maybe if we put them back together the way they were, they'd get better?

The Mangle was already disjointed when I put your brother and sister in it. There hasn't been a time in which the twins have been in a coherent state, so there's nothing I can return them to that would be any better. Rebuilding the Mangle as it was as Foxy wouldn't help; two spirits wouldn't be able to inhabit the body in that form. This is not something that can be fixed so easily.

But we can't just leave them like this!

The Puppet's head tilted. It seemed as if it was focusing on something else. It received another voice from the Mangle.

Too…too many voices…too many voices…too many hands…

The remnant of Peter's spirit was barely faring any better than the twins, and there was still nothing the Puppet could do for it. Trying to take the spirits out of this body would most likely damage them more.

The mice ate the stickers.

Too much…every day…

The house throws up glue.

The Puppet had always tried to help those hurt by the Purple Man. Even as miserable as the children were, the Puppet knew that Will, Greg, Lucy, Peter, Ben, Liam, Gina, and Hayden were better off stuck in the animatronic bodies than they were without. But here, like with Robbie, the Puppet wasn't sure.


	25. Calling in Help

-Ring-Ring-Ring-

"Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, this is Joel spe…Fritz?...Fritz, slow down…Fritz, not this again. Mr. Faz has gotten tired of…it tried to what?...What makes you think it wanted... Look, are you sure that this wasn't just some kind of dream?...What?...Oh jeez, did you put it in a sling or something?...Fritz, calm down…you don't need to quit!...You don't want that on your resume, Fritz…Look…give it a bit of time…No, wait! I can see if I can get you transferred over to the day shift, I'll talk to Mr. Faz…Look, Mr. Faz isn't going to let us get hurt, alright? He doesn't want that kind of publicity. Trust me, day shift is just fine…I haven't noticed anything…Alright…That's good…I'll let you know if he says OK…Just get better, alright? See ya."

Joel put the phone down and sighed. He wasn't entirely sure he believed Fritz. It wasn't that he thought that he was lying, but really? The animatronics tried to shove him into a suit? Joel considered the idea that Fritz had really just cracked under the pressure, tripped, and hurt his arms that way. Still though, Joel had said he'd try to get him transferred over to day shift. He started to get up, but bumped into someone who had snuck up on him while he was talking.

"Oh jeez!"

It was just Toy Freddy. For all Joel knew, it had been there the whole time he'd been talking to Fritz. Normally, the animatronics would say something when they saw someone. At least this time it hadn't interrupted Joel's phone call. Joel grinned to make Toy Freddy go away, but nothing happened. The animatronic continued to stare at Joel.

"Hey Freddy, how's it going?"

There was still no response. Toy Freddy stood as still as a statue. It bothered Joel. He sidled his way past Freddy and made his way down the Main Hall. He took another look back at Freddy. It was still staring at Joel. The main doors opened up.

"Freddy!"

A little girl squealed and ran up to Toy Freddy, hugging it. Finally, it stopped staring at Joel and returned the hug.

"Hey there! Welcome to Freddy's!"

That was a relief. Maybe it had just been a fluke. The animatronics sometimes just ignored the employees anyway, so not talking wasn't actually a new thing. When the girl's parents walked in, Joel realized that he needed to sign them in. He went through the reservation list, found their names, and gave them a flag to mark their table. However, they weren't looking at him. They were looking at Toy Freddy, who was staring at them now. Joel tapped them on the shoulder and handed the parents their flag, who were still staring apprehensively at Toy Freddy, who eventually went off to the Show Stage.

Mr. Faz wasn't too bothered by the news.

"They're robots; they're going to have kinks here and there."

It seemed like less of a kink to Joel, but he was smart enough to not give Faz back talk.

"Yes, well, Fritz said that the animatronics have been acting up a bit at night…"

"What, that whiner? What does he want?"

"Well…he said that the animatronics might have…"

Faz put his hand up to stop Joel. "Look, I don't care what you or that loser says. Those old things can't be able to walk around."

"Sir…he says it was the new ones this time."

"What?" Faz glowered. "Does he really think I'd buy that? Now he knows that I don't buy his first story, he's switched it around."

"He says that Freddy might have tried to attack him…"

"Oh come on, really? I'm sick of that punk making up stories. I'm not going to deal with him anymore." Faz picked up the phone and started to dial Fritz's number.

"Uh sir…Fritz's not at his house."

Faz looked up at Joel annoyed.

"Well, where the hell is he then?"

"He says he's at the hospital."

"What!?"

"Yeah…he says that Freddy grabbed him by the arms and…well…dragged him into the Parts and Service Room. He says he broke his arm when he pulled himself away from Freddy and flashed him in the face with his flashlight…"

"God D_ it! That's just what I need, more problems."

"Do you think we need to talk to his doctors or anything?"

Faz barely acknowledged Joel, waving his suggestion away.

"I've got enough problems with uniforms as it is."

"What do you mean…?"

Faz sighed. "Look, I can't fire him now. Just transfer him over to day shift."

Joel was left with more questions than answers, but at least he got the okay to move Fritz.

"Alright…but what are we going to do for a night guard?"

"Hang on; I think I got someone…" Faz looked through a mess of folders on his desk, but couldn't find what he was looking for. "Jay…James…Jerry something. He's got a German name, or something like that, I don't know."

"Well what about tonight?"

"What do you mean tonight?" Faz continued to search through the application forms. "Jerry'll do it."

"Wait…tonight?"

"Yeah, tonight." Faz finally picked out the form.

"Shouldn't we have a bit of time to train him?"

Faz laughed. "The kid just needs to stay in the office and keep an eye on things. There's your training."

"But what about the animatronics? What if something happens with them again?"

Faz rolled his eyes.

"Fine. I'll get the engineers to look into it."

"Well…can I at least show the guy the ropes?"

Faz had stopped watching Joel again, typing in the future employee's phone number.

"You want to do it, do it on your own time."

An hour later, the engineers had looked into the animatronics systems, and had found nothing wrong with them, at least nothing important. There was a strange glitch involving how the animatronics saw adults and endoskeletons, but the engineers assured Joel and Mr. Faz that it didn't really change anything. Joel wished that there was something to do about them, but for the time being, they'd all just have to deal with it. He did however figure out a way to help the new night guard. During his lunch break, he went into the main office and picked up the phone, pressing "record."

"Uh, hello? Hello, hello? Uh, hello and welcome to your new job at the new and improved Freddy Fazbear's Pizza..."


	26. Invitation

The withered Freddy animatronic stood over the Mangle, which had curled and curved away from it like a snake. Balloon Boy was watching the two from behind the doorway, holding a party hat in its spare hand. Withered Freddy stole a glance towards Balloon Boy, who retreated away from the two. The Mangle rattled its gears, getting Freddy's attention again.

The horse left Goldilocks' picnic basket at home. Jharā.

Hi, I'm Freddy.

The Mangle only rattled some more.

Your porridge is soft.

The spare head on the Mangle suddenly twitched.

Will? Is that you? Where's the rest of me!?

The head became stiff again and resumed staring at the withered Freddy.

I wanted to know if you want to play with us.

Jharā. The chair is too cold.

Whatever "Jharā" meant, Will thought that it didn't mean anything good. The Freddy animatronic turned its head again to Balloon Boy, who had peaked out at the two animatronics. As soon as the Freddy animatronic looked at Balloon Boy, the Mangle had pulled itself up onto the wall and swung over towards the doorway, hanging off of its rim. It was between the withered Freddy and Balloon Boy.

Jharā! Wolf burns stuffing in house! Jharā!

Will made Freddy back away from the Balloon Boy.

I didn't do anything!

The Mangle's Foxy head twisted in a circle on one of its extended arms.

There is no hike if there is no bed. Jharā.

I have a little brother too.

The Mangle stopped twisting around. Both of its heads were focused on the withered Freddy now.

Is there a horse in the house that Goldilocks is sleeping in?

He…He…the Purple Man…

The Mangle recoiled like a snake.

Bad…bad…bad Barney…jharā. Jharā!

He…he hurt…The Purple Man hurt Robbie! He hurt him! Robbie hasn't been right…he doesn't say anything anymore…he just stays in that suit.

The Mangle dropped to the floor, looking up at the withered animatronic.

Doesn't the burglar want to dance?

And so…so…I wanted to know if you wanted to play. We're going to play a game with the Purple Man.

The Mangle dragged itself back up the doorway. Gripping the door hinge with two arms, it dangled in front of the Freddy animatronic.

The Rubics cube twists Barney?

It's going to be like hide-and-seek, or maybe red light-green light. Do you want to play?

…The house falls on the plum tree. It makes juice.


	27. Jeremy Fitzgerald

Where am I? It's so dark. This place looks familiar…this sort of looks like the old Dining Room at Freddy Fazbear's.

What's this though? Something's in front of my face. I can only see through two holes. It looks like I'm wearing a big mask or something. I've got to look around…Is that the old Bonnie? If he's there, than if I turn to the left...there's Chica. So…I'm Freddy.

What's that noise? Is someone laughing, or are they crying?

…

The alarm on Jeremy Fitzgerald's watch woke him up. He just remembered why he was here, slumped over the steering wheel of his car parked in front of Freddy Fazbear's pizza. That day, he had been offered, or rather told to report to his new job at Freddy Fazbear's as the new night guard. Jerry had been applying for weeks, getting turned down everywhere as other people got the jobs. So, even though this was a night job and the only way Jerry could arrive on time was to rush to the store immediately, Jerry took it. Scheduling had gotten complicated, so Jerry ended up arriving early, and had passed the time by sleeping in his car (he wouldn't be able to sleep for six more hours anyway.)

That was a weird dream though. Jerry wasn't a superstitious guy; he liked to think of himself as too organized to slip into that kind of thinking, but the dream had creeped him out. He had heard of stories related to the old store, of kids that had died, employees that had seen the animatronics following them around the store. Jerry couldn't let himself get paranoid. Mr. Faz had told him to just walk in and lock the door behind him with the key in the Main Office.


	28. Tragic Stories

"Were you working here last Friday?'

"Yes sir." Joel replied.

"Did you see these kids?" The police officer put photos of six kids on the desk in front of Joel.

"Uh…I'm not sure. There were a lot of kids that night. It was a Friday, you know?"

"One of your coworkers said that she saw these two in the uh…what do you call it? 'The Kid's Cove?'" The officer pointed to a photo of twins.

"Oh, Sally? Yeah, she was working in the Kid's Cove Friday. We got to have someone to watch the kids and make sure they don't try to take any pieces of the Mangle…"

"The what?"

"Oh, that's what we call the new Foxy ever since it got taken apart." Joel laughed nervously. "You know these kids; they can't keep their hand to themsel…"

"You sure you didn't see any of these kids?" The officer interrupted annoyed.

"Well…I don't know! I usually work back here…"

The officer pointed to the tablet with the camera images. "That's why I'm asking you. Are you seriously telling me that with all of these cameras, you didn't see any of these kids?"

Joel looked to the cameras and back to the officer.

"Well maybe, but I told you, it was busy. I can't watch all of the cameras at once."

"Well, what do you remember about that night?"

"Uh…I worked back here all day until 11:30 pm. Around 9, Eric, one of the other day guards, told me that some parents had lost their kids. But that happens all the time in a place like this, you know? I just got a description of the kids and tried to find them on the cameras, but I didn't see anyone that matched their description. They weren't in the store, as far as I could tell."

The officer wrote down what Joel said on a note pad.

"Did you see anything suspicious or anyone acting unusual that night?"

"Not that I could remember. You don't think that someone actually hurt…"

Suddenly Mr. Faz barged in.

"That's enough. You can get back to work, Joel. I'll answer any other questions you might have, officer." He said this with the air of a politician.

A few moments later while Joel was working in the Main Office, Faz came at him like an angry hippo.

"Look Graham, I don't want to hear anything else about those kids, got it?"

"Yes sir."

Faz moved as if to walk away, but then reconsidered.

"The day guard _didn't_ notice anything, right?"

"No, he hasn't reported anything, anyway."

That cheered Faz up.

"Good! See what I mean? What's going on with those kids is none of our business." Faz shrugged. "Don't get me wrong, my heart goes out to those kids and their families, but it's really none of our business. I just need you to be sure that Fazbear Entertainment denies any wrongdoing, got it?"

"Uh…yes sir."

Faz started to walk away, but called back over his shoulder.

"And make sure the night guard knows that, alright? We can't afford to get him more whiny or paranoid than he already is."

"No sir." While Joel wasn't entirely convinced that there was nothing to worry about, he did at least agree that this wasn't something that the new night guard needed to worry himself with. The guy had already started to get as paranoid as Nate and had been asking for a transfer.

When Mr. Faz left, Joel tried to get his mind off of the police by going over the things to do this week. The only big event coming up was a birthday party on Sunday. With nothing else to do, Joel went back to the cameras. By chance, he ended up at the Prize Corner.

The Puppet was standing up from its box, staring at the camera. Joel sighed and put the tablet down, putting his hands over his face and groaning. He wasn't a whiner, but he hated the Puppet. It was the most God-awful creepy thing here. Tired and thirsty, Joel moved to the right side of the desk to get his water. He took a drink and looked at the camera again. The Puppet was still watching, but Joel realized something was off. It wasn't looking at the camera in the same way. It was angled slightly. Joel moved back to the center of the desk, and the Puppet's head moved, its gaze even with Joel's through the camera. He backed up, and the Puppet tilted to look directly at Joel. The Puppet wasn't looking at the camera, it was looking at _Joel_.

Joel turned the tablet off. He shook his head. His nerves were on end, that's all. He picked the tablet up again, ignoring the Prize Corner and flipped to the Show Stage. The Toy animatronics were all singing to a group of smiling children, but they weren't looking at the children or at each other. While they were facing the Dining Area, their eyes were all pointed at the cameras. Joel almost threw the tablet down. He had had suspicions that something was wrong with the animatronics, but this was just not right. They weren't supposed to act this way.

Joel went for a walk. Anything to calm himself down. Once the investigation ended, everything would go back to normal. Everything was going to sort itself out.


	29. Things aren't going so well here

The thing was though, things didn't get much better the next day. The police came back to the store, this time with a warrant. Each employee was interrogated, every inch of the store looked over. There were guys in lab gowns, concerned parents, and reporters everywhere.

Mr. Faz wasn't happy. He pulled Joel aside in the Main Office.

"Look, do we have anything coming up event-wise?"

"There's a birthday party Sunday, but nothing else, why?"

Faz grimaced.

"Make sure that that's the only event. We're not going to be taking any other reservations for a while. There's too many police here to keep the store open."

"Oh…alright."

…

The next day, there were no customers, only police officers and crime scene investigators. When he saw he wasn't making a profit, Faz tried to get the employees to go home, only to get stopped by the police. They had put the store on lockdown, and they weren't letting any of the employees out of sight. Faz was brought into the Main Office to talk to the police. Joel waited outside until the grim-faced officers left and Faz called him in.

"That new night guard…he's been asking for a transfer to day shift right?"

"Yeah…"

"…We might give him that transfer."

Out of all the things Faz could be talking about right now, that was what Joel expected the least. With all of the police and bad press the store was getting, he had thought Faz had completely forgotten about the night shift.

"Alright…can I ask why?"

Faz grimaced.

"Those cops told me that we're short one of our day guards. He didn't come in today."

"Why are they so interested in hi…Oh…"

Faz jabbed his finger at Joel.

"Don't tell anyone about this. Only tell that Fitz kid what he needs to know, got it?"

"Yes sir."

"We might need to change locations, so see if you can look up the guy that owned the original store."

"…Alright."

"Well…" Faz got up from the desk and walked out. "Get back to work."

Joel sat at the desk. He leaned back in the chair and groaned. He was one of the few people that had gotten transferred over from the first Fazbear's. Things were turning out just like they did last time. Police were coming in, parents were getting scare to bring their kids. Maybe a store change would be a good idea. He tried to calm himself down and recorded a phone message for the night guard.

"Hello, hello? Hey, good job, night 5! Um hey, um, keep a close eye on things tonight, ok?..."

Joel finished up his phone message and took a drink of water, closing his eyes while he let it go down his throat. Finally he was able to relax. He opened his eyes.

The animatronics were all in the office with him. Toy Bonnie was sticking out from the Right Air Vent. Toy Chica was sticking out from the Left Air Vent. Both Toy Freddy and the old Freddy were standing in front of him. The old withered Bonnie was standing next to the Right Air Vent, and the withered Chica was standing next to the Left Air Vent. Behind the Freddys in the hall, Joel could see the old Foxy crouching. Joel's gaze moved down, and he saw the Balloon Boy peering at him from beneath the desk. He looked up, and the Mangle was hanging from the ceiling. Between Toy Freddy and withered Freddy, the Puppet was floating. And behind the withered Freddy, Joel saw the old Golden Freddy suit, slumped over.

Joel couldn't think. He looked at the phone, and grabbed at the Freddy head that was next to the chair and shoved it over his head like it was a security blanket. Joel closed his eyes and prayed. He opened his eyes.

The animatronics had left the Main Office. But the Golden Freddy suit was still there. Joel blinked, and it vanished.

It was a nightmare. That was all. That was all.


	30. A Warning

The next day, Joel went back to work, determined to forget about what he had seen in the office and never talk about it to anyone ever again. He ignored the police cars and news vans that were congregating outside and walked into the store. When he started down the Main Hall though, he was stopped by an angry police officer.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

"I work here."

"Not today, you don't!" The officer took Joel by the shoulder and steered back down the hall.

"Wait, what's going on? I need to clock in…"

As he had been walking, Joel had been ignoring everything but the checkered tiles in front of him, and everyone else had ignored him. He hadn't seen that one of the Backrooms was open.

"Oh God…"

Coroners were carting small bodies out of the room in body bags.

"Oh God…"

The officer paused at the Back room, realizing his mistake in herding Joel past it, but continued to push him angrily. Mr. Faz was standing outside the room, watching the police.

"Mr. Faz, what happened…"

Joel was able to look directly into the Back room, where he saw crime scene investigators boxing up an old Golden Freddy suit. He stared at the suit, and then at Mr. Faz. The look Faz gave confirmed what Joel was thinking.

"We're closed today. We're going to have that birthday party tomorrow, and that'll be it for a while."

The officer herded Joel out of the store. Joel froze outside, and then staggered over to a trash can, which he threw up in. He got back into his car and drove away, trying desperately to forget what he'd just seen. However, it wasn't until several hours later at midnight that he thought of something. Fitzgerald hadn't seen any of this. He didn't know what was going on. Still though, there had been a police investigation into the store. It had been all over the news. But Joel couldn't help the nagging thought that Fitzgerald was still coming to work. He called the store, and to his horror, Fitzgerald answered.

"Hello? Hello…uh…what on earth are you doing there? Didn't you get the memo? Uh, the place is closed down, at least for a while. Someone used one of the suits. We had a spare in the back, a yellow one, someone used it, now none of them are acting right."

Joel decided that it didn't matter whether he or Fitzgerald were crazy or not, he needed to let Fitzgerald have an idea of what he had been seeing during the day and prepare him for tomorrow.

"Uh, we have one more event scheduled for tomorrow, a birthday. You'll be on day shift, wear your uniform, stay close to the animatronics, make sure they don't hurt anyone okay? Uh, for now, just make it through the night. Uh, when the place eventually opens again I'll probably take the night shift myself. Okay, good night, and good luck."


	31. Jharā

Joel didn't know how he was able to get any sleep that night. He could only imagine what it had been like for Jeremy. To his pleasure though, he was able to meet Jeremy Fitzgerald face-to-face for the first time on November 13, 1987.

When Jeremy walked into the store though, he looked less happy. It was understandable, not having regular sleep for 6 days.

"Oh, hey! You must be Jeremy Fitzgerald! Good to meet you! I'm Joel." Joel held his hand out. Jeremy didn't take it. Joel didn't blame him. He gave Joel a weird look, recognizing something.

"You're the Phone guy."

"The what? Oh yeah, I've been leaving phone messages for you."

Jeremy stared at Joel.

"Uh…yeah…I guess it's been rough for you this week."

Jeremy started to glare.

"But, hey! It's all over now! You won't need to worry about the animatronics during the day. They'll be too distracted by the kids to bother you."

This seemed to calm Jeremy down a bit. He took a breath.

"You said that you're going to be moving over to the night shift, right?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"You sure you want to do that?"

Jeremy wasn't being sarcastic. Joel shrugged.

"I think so. I mean, I get that the animatronics have been kind of…buggy, but I'm pretty sure once this whole mess sorts itself out, they'll be back to normal."

"What makes you say that?"

Because that's how it happened last time when they moved. That was what Joel meant to say, but he knew Faz didn't like people asking questions about the last store.

"Uh, well, I'm sure that once the police clear out and customers come back, they'll calm down again. They just want to make people happy, and when they can't, I guess they just glitch out a bit."

Jeremy stared at Joel for a few more minutes, thinking things out as far as Joel could tell. Eventually, he shrugged.

"What do you need me to do?"

…

Barney hid in the closet. Jharā. Jharā. Jharā! Jharā! Jharā!

While the Mangle couldn't feel pain, the twins most certainly felt something. Being played with was agony. Every time the Mangle was taken apart, the aggregate spirits had to reorient themselves to accommodate their new form. The spare animatronic head twitched.

Why…Why do they do this? Why won't they leave us alone!?

The Easter eggs are all broken. The mice are boring holes in the house too!

Over time, the twins had learned that the only way they could deal with the sensation of being picked apart was to simply retreat into the Mangle and wait for it to be over. When the day ended, they'd sometimes put themselves back together in a form that they were more comfortable with, only to be taken apart again the next day.

Stick a rifle up Barney's nose…Why didn't the meteor stuff Barney? Jharā! The plum tree will pop the horse's balloons…The house has to keep the horse inside. Our horse is too fat. His wolf has his keys. The house won't let the wolf in though, the door will lock the plum tree out. Violent violets won't leave the house's garden. Jharā. Petals and juice will stain the ground.

The twins tried to think of something else, anything else while the toddlers played with them. They thought about what they'd do to the Purple Man once they got him. Will had suggested that when they finally caught him, they'd stuff him inside of a suit and crush him. It would be fair. The twins would be okay with that, but they didn't think that'd be enough. They hadn't been stuffed inside of a suit like Will and his friends, but they were pretty sure that what they were going through beat out what Will had experienced. There simply wasn't enough time for the twins to do right on the Purple Man. They would need days, days that they could pull the Purple Man apart and put him back together again, and again, and again, and again.

While the twins were trying to go to their happy place, they saw something out of the corner of Mangle's eyes.

The Purple Man was in the store again. This time though, he was standing right in the middle of the Dining Area, watching the animatronics.

Barney is playing soccer in Italy?

Ben, Liam, and Gina were all watching him through the Toy animatronics, but they weren't attacking him. There was too much noise, too many distractions. The Purple Man was watching them apprehensively, wandering from table to table, not wanting to be in the same place for too long. There were kids there having a birthday party.

The violet is playing with the mice. House will drown violet. Jharā.

…

Jeremy wasn't happy to be near the animatronics, but as far as he could tell, Joel was right. As long as they were distracted by the kids, they didn't bother him. He kept on getting the sensation that they were watching him, though.

By this point, Jeremy had forgotten why he had started working here in the first place. It might have been to get money, but he couldn't see why that would be reason enough to come back here. Still though, he had a job to do. Joel had warned him to make sure that the animatronics didn't hurt anyone, so for now, that was what he was going to do. Like Joel had told him, when the animatronics were in free roaming-mode, they interacted pretty well with the kids. Jeremy was still worried about the adults and himself, but at least the animatronics hadn't done anything but stare. He was starting to think he could handle the situation. Joel spotted him from the other side of the Dining Area and gave him a tentative thumbs up. Jeremy shrugged in response.

He began to notice really young kids starting to flock around him, pointing and laughing. It bothered Jeremy to see kids this young out by themselves. Shouldn't they be in the Kid's Cove? Then Jeremy realized something. The kids weren't pointing and laughing at Jeremy, they were pointing just above him. He looked up to see what was so funny.

…

The twins were given one second of the Purple Man looking up at them. Even with as incomprehensible everything had become to them, at that moment, the aggregate that the twins had become wished that that look would last forever.

Bad Barney.

Jharā.

…

Things were going well today. They were going to have the birthday party and shut down the animatronics. Joel was going to wait for a few weeks, maybe a few months at the most, and then get back to work, when the animatronics were either going to be fixed or at least stop acting up. That was what Joel was thinking until he heard people screaming. He turned back to where Jeremy had last been. He was still standing there, right where he had last been, but parents were screaming and pulling their kids away from him. On the floor, the Mangle was writhing around.

"Hey Jeremy, is something wrong?"

Did the Mangle hurt someone? Jeremy wasn't answering. He was just staring up at the ceiling while parents were pulling the kids away from the Mangle at his feet. As a precautionary measure, Joel ran over and grabbed a hold of the Mangle's neck, flipping the switch at the base of its head while it was distracted by the kids.

"It's bebebeen fuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnn…."

Joel dropped the Mangle and looked back up at Jeremy. Was he in shock or something?

"C'mon, Jerry, what happened? What are you…"

Joel walked around and saw Jeremy's face.

"OH MY GOD!"

All the parents that didn't see what happened were now screaming in unison and swarming to get out of the store.

"SOMEONE CALL 911! Oh God…Just…just stay there, Jerry…Oh God…"

What Joel could see left of Jeremy's face was frozen in a vacant expression. Jeremy was still standing, so he was still alive, but Joel didn't know whether he should get him to sit down or remain standing. He had no idea how Jeremy was still standing or even alive, but Joel could only think that it was best for Jeremy to stand as still as possible.


	32. Consequences

As before, Fazbear Entertainment was able to survive a series of child abductions, only to be closed again for another incident. However, it was hurt much harder than before. This time, the children's bodies were found, thus eliminating the possibility of them being listed as just "missing". The animatronic malfunction labeled "the bite of '87" was a stain on the reputation of the company that it would never get past. Additionally, this time, the killer was not arrested. Fazbear Entertainment had this to say:

"It's a minor setback. We are confident that we will reopen someday, even if it is with a much smaller budget."

The Toy animatronics were slated to be dismantled and replaced by their old versions, which were to be repaired.

…

For the first time in weeks, Peter was able to see and speak again when Faz put back Bonnie's endoskeleton head. Up until now, he could only ever walk towards whatever sound he could hear and hope that it was his goal. When the Purple Guy had been in the Main Office, he had hoped that not being able to see would have given him a way to work around the Freddy Head trick, but he found out that as long as the endoskeleton itself knew that the night guard had a suit on, he couldn't hurt him; ergo, whenever Bonnie heard the night guard put the Freddy head on, it no longer counted as an endoskeleton without its suit.

However, it was bittersweet moment for Peter. Finally, he was able to see again, and he was able to communicate with the others through the Ethereal, but it was only for a few moments before Mr. Faz shut Bonnie down to go into storage. Also, Peter knew if Faz was putting Bonnie and Chica back together, they weren't using the Toy Foxy anymore. They were going to get rid of the Toy animatronics.

Puppet, what's going to happen to Val and Vince? What's going to happen to the others?

The Puppet didn't respond immediately.

…They're bodies are going to be taken apart. When that happens, they won't be able to stay in those bodies anymore. Without a body, they're either going to wander around in the Ethereal or they'll have to find some other kind of vessel.

Is there anything we can do for them?

No. They're out of our hands now.

This isn't fair. Vince and Val finally get the Purple Man, and they're going to be taken apart. It's not fair.

…What's going to happen to us though?

I think…it's going to be the same thing as last time.

No…no not again…not the dark…

Puppet…there's got to be something we can do…I don't want to live like this anymore…isn't there some way we can leave this store?

I don't know.

How can you not know?

I just don't. I thought that maybe, if we could get the Purple Man, if we could get the one that put us here, we might be able to move on.

But Vince and Val did!

I think they only hurt him…but also…I'm not sure anymore that that was the Purple Man.

What? What do you mean? We saw him! He was in the office this whole time! You saw him!

I'm not so sure anymore. Things seem clearer now that I don't have an endoskeleton inside of this body. Things seem less confusing. I don't see the Purple Man everywhere now. I think that it was just some trick that the real Purple Man did so we couldn't see him.

…You're wrong.

Will…

It doesn't matter what you say. You're wrong. Even if that wasn't the Purple Man, I'm not going to give up until I get the real Purple Man for good.

I don't think you'll won't know him if you see him anymore.

It doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. No one understands us anymore. I can't talk to anyone. No one understands me. They only understand me when I show them what it was like. I'm going to keep doing that until someone helps me.

Will…

There's got to be someone…someone's got to help me…someone's got to help us.

...

Vince? Val?

…

VeeVee?

Horse food wolf house?

I'm scared.

The house keeps the wolf out while the horse eats.

…I wish you guys could talk the way you used to.

The house is upside down. The doors only open one way.

I think…I think at least you're trying.

Horse is dry and happy.

It's just that…I don't know what's going to happen.

The house keeps the horse from the violets! Horses and wolves don't need to worry about eating the poison flowers anymore!

I don't remember the last time they turned us on…and sometimes I feel people close by…they don't like us anymore.

The clown will feed the wolves cyanide pies. Jharā.

You're…you're supposed to be the clown, right? Don't do that. I think that what you did is why they haven't turned us on again.

…The horse gets a rubber nose.

Don't worry, I know you were trying to help. I'm just…just…

The horse trades shoes with the clown?

It's just…what if they don't turn us on again? What if they…what if they do what they did to Will and his friends?

The horse will eat in the house. No violets. No wolves.

…What if…what if…

It's good food!

…I heard them once…the said that they were going to take us apart.

Jharā! The houses burn and flood! The house will fall on the wolves!

VeeVee…VeeVee…I think someone's there…

The door is locked! The wolf can't get in!

…

Does the horse have a full mouth?

…

Does the wolf's house have enough food?

…

Why is the wolf not laughing?

…it's…

Horse food wolf house?

…so…cold…

…The wolf…the wolf got into his house…no…the horse was too fat to run away…the wolf is sleeping… j…jharā… Jharā…no! Jharā! Jharā! The clown's play isn't done yet! The circus can't close now! Jhar…

There was a horrible feeling of separation as the Mangle was reduced to its constituent parts. The spirits of the twins were broken up with the Mangle as the employees disassembled it for the last time. Unable to stay in the individual fragments, the spirits left.

…

"First room on the left, Mr. Graham."

Joel thanked the receptionist and walked down the hall. He braced himself for what he was going to see. However, when he opened the door and saw Jeremy reclining on his bed, he was amazed to see how much better he looked. Jeremy had to get some major surgery and skin grafts, but all Joel could see on his face were a few stitches. Besides that, he looked as normal as he did when he first started working.

"Hey Jeremy! It's good to see you so well!"

Jeremy looked at Joel, but didn't do anything else. His face was as blank as it was when the Mangle attacked him.

"Uh, Jeremy, do you remember me? It's Joel. I was working with you when you…uh…ended up here."

"When I was attacked by an animatronic."

"Well…yeah…sorry about that." Joel sighed. Jeremy looked alright, but something about him didn't feel right to Joel. He wanted to say something to alleviate the mood. "Sorry you had such a tough week, but hey, you look great now! No one would believe you got…uh…"

"Bit in the face by an animatronic."

"Uh, yeah. Heck, that'll be a story to tell people, right?"

Jeremy's face didn't change. He wasn't laughing, but he didn't seem angry either. He didn't seem anything at all.

"Yeah."

"So…what have the doctors been doing to you to help you out?"

Jeremy had started watching a fly buzz around the room and settle on the window.

"Jeremy?"

Jeremy shook his head and looked back at Joel.

"How have the doctors been helping you?"

Jeremy still didn't answer.

"Uh, Jeremy?"

"Who are you?"

Joel blinked.

"What do you mean? I told you, it's Joel. Don't you remember me?"

"I remember Joel. I remember the Phone Guy. Who are you?"

"Uh…what do you mean? I'm Joel. You called me the Phone Guy when we first met. I left you phone messages over your first week…"

"Oh darn it!"

Joel flinched as someone shouted behind him. One of the doctors had come into the room without him realizing it. He took Joel by the shoulder.

"Listen, you should come out into the hallway with me."

Joel was too dumbstruck to resist. He followed the doctor, stealing a glance back at Jeremy, who was still staring at him from the bed. The doctor closed the door behind Joel.

"I'm sorry about that, the receptionist shouldn't have let you in just yet."

"Wha…what's wrong with Jeremy?"

The doctor sighed.

"We think Mr. Fitzgerald has developed Capgras Syndrome."

"Excuse me?"

"In short, he thinks that anyone he meets is an imposter. It was pretty rough when his family came in. How do you know Mr. Fitzgerald?"

"Uh, I worked with him."

"You mean at that pizza place?"

"Yes. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza."

"So were you there for the accident?"

Joel had been trying not to think about the bite. He had come expecting to see Jeremy physically disfigured, and found that he was now…well…not as much here.

"Y…yes…but I'd rather not talk about it. My boss wants to clear up stuff before we say anything."

The doctor frowned.

"Sure. Well, I'm not sure that there's that much good you can do here. I'm sure that if Mr. Fitzgerald was in the right state of mind, he'd be grateful for one of his coworkers dropping by." The doctor began to herd Joel back down the hall.

"But…you can make him better, right?"

The doctor stopped.

"Listen, Capgras is caused by damage to the frontal lobe. We can fix damage with therapy and the right drugs, but Jeremy's frontal lobe hasn't been damaged. It's been _removed_. If you really want to help your friend, I recommend you tell your boss that so he can be a bit more open about what's been going on at your store."

Joel was sent back outside. He took a moment to think about his life. He worked for a company that was linked to multiple child murders, health violations, and maiming. The animatronics had had a history of malfunctioning, badly. Joel considered the idea of quitting. He decided that he'd rather focus on simply getting over what happened to Jeremy and move on with his life, so he answered this tragedy by choosing to forget about it. Joel had gotten pretty good at that at his job.


	33. Lessons Learned and Unlearned

It took three years before Fazbear Entertainment was able to get over the bad press of the bite of '87 and garner the necessary support to restart the franchise. Obviously though, changes had to be made. First of all, the company had a reduced budget. This meant that along with switching back to the old animatronics, the main store would be moved back to its original location. Secondly, the animatronics were no longer allowed to go into free-roaming mode; they could not take the chance that the animatronics would malfunction (they could never figure out why they malfunctioned in the first place) and attack someone again. However, this was deemed overzealous when Fazbear Entertainment figured out that the animatronics could not remain on stage for too long, otherwise their servos locked up. So, the animatronics were allowed to go into free-roaming mode at night, after the customers and most of the employees had left. There was still a slight perceived chance of the animatronics bothering the night guard, so Fazbear Entertainment decided that they might as well install security doors and lights, with some legal jargon additions made to the introductory greeting that would be read to each of the new guards.

…

The Puppet was back at the old store, in almost the same situation. The difference was this time it was sealed away inside a box. The employees heard rumors about it from time to time, but no one ever actually saw it. Without an endoskeleton, the Puppet couldn't break out of the box on its own. Normally, it wouldn't care; there wasn't much about life it could enjoy anyway. However, Will, Lucy, Peter, Greg, and Robbie were still out there. It had been three years since they had last seen the light of day. After the bite of '87, they had been locked away in a warehouse again.

They were all pretty sure that they had had family and friends years ago, but they had forgotten their names and what they looked like. There was very little that the Puppet could do for them now. They couldn't play with other children anymore. They were stuck on the stage, playing the same songs over and over, unable to control how they moved or what they were looking at. They weren't by themselves though. Ben, Liam, Gina, Hayden, Vince, and Val were all still here. It was as the Puppet had feared; they couldn't leave anymore. Their spirits were constrained to the limits of the Fazbear stores. Occasionally, they could manifest themselves in the form of drawings or the thoughts of the night guards, but for the most part they simply wandered the store.

…

Joel was glad to have a job, but the move back to the old Fazbear's was not an improvement. The new store had been so much bigger and so much more advanced. It was tough to get used to the old place again. Unfortunately, this time it was even worse.

"Ma'am, please ask your children to stop throwing pizza at the animatronics…"

"What do you expect me to do!? They're bored, and I can't be everywhere at once!"

The screaming kids weren't actually trying to throw pizza at Freddy and his friends, but they were more or less throwing pizza everywhere. Kids would be kids; they had this kind of problem even at the new store, but Joel had learned that the less kids are entertained, the more they'll act out. Without the animatronics going into free roaming mode, the kids got bored a lot faster.

Joel looked at the animatronics that were now covered in pizza sauce and cheese. Things still didn't seem quite right with them. They didn't stare at him anymore, but he got the sense that if they could, they would. The store was currently on its sixth night guard. Joel had been told that the others had quit.

The animatronics were singing "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me." They hadn't been able to hire a new night guard recently. That meant Joel was going to need to take the shift soon.

…

" _Everybody's talkin' 'bout the new sound. Funny, but it's still rock and roll to me._ "

Freddy?

Yeah, Chica?

How long do you think we have before we can come off the stage?

I don't know.

" _Should I get a set of white wall tires? 'Are you gonna cruise the miracle mile?'_ "

Do you think that the Purple Man will still be here?

He shouldn't be. He's in one of the suits now.

But we've put the Purple Man in a suit before…

Well maybe he will be. We still need to get him. We're going to get the Purple Man. We're going to get all of the Purple Man.

" _Hot funk, cool punk even if its old junk, It's still rock and roll to me._ "

I don't want to do this again, Freddy. I'm tired of the Purple Man seeing me.

Shut up Foxy.

" _Oh, it doesn't matter what it say in the papers, 'cause it's always been the same old scene._ "

How's the little guy been doing?

He's still crying. He'll get used to things soon though.

But…I can't remember…has he ever stopped crying?

…Sometimes it just takes time.


	34. Last Calls

Joel had been working the night shift for weeks. Now he got what it was like for those other guys. To his credit though, those night guards usually only lasted a few days. He had gotten used to the flow of things; when to check the cameras and when to check the lights. He knew the animatronics better than other guards, how certain animatronics moved and how quickly.

The thing was though, even if Joel had to admit that he was a patsy and a suck up to Faz, he wasn't stupid. He came early to the store one day.

"Uh, Mr. Faz? I was wondering if I could get a transfer back to the day shift."

Faz smirked as if it was joke.

"You kidding me, kid? You're doing just fine. You don't whine and you don't just disappear on me." He gave Joel a sideways look. "That's not going to change, is it?"

"No, no sir! At least, I hope not."

"Well that's settled than, isn't it?" Faz went back to reading the paper.

"Mr. Faz, it's just that I prefer the day shift."

"Can't understand that." Faz said without looking up from his paper.

"Well sir…I just feel a bit nervous about the animatronics when they're in free-roaming mode…"

"And there you go!" Faz pointed at Joel. "I've got another whiner here. And to think, after a few weeks, I would have thought you had more stones than that."

Faz wasn't going to listen to anything about the animatronics. For once, Joel had to try a different tact.

"Sir, the job has been…a bit rough. You see, I've been getting some other offers."

Faz dropped the paper and stared at Joel.

"It's just if I can't the right hours, it might be a good…"

Faz groaned out loud.

"Fine! You want the day shift, you can have it." He glared at Joel. "But you're staying there one more week until I can get a replacement, and you're going to be the one to train him." He got back to the paper. "Don't expect to get any more favors from me."

Joel sighed in relief. "Thank you sir, I really appreci…"

"Now get the hell out of my office!"

…

In hindsight, Joel realized that he should have asked to stick around the store a bit longer to use the phone to record his message for his replacement. Now, he would need to do it on his own time, with his own power. This meant more time spent away from the monitor and keeping an eye on the door. It was Monday though, so at least it would be easier. Joel kept his eye on the animatronics in the Show Stage for a few minutes to satisfy himself that he could catch them if they started moving out before he started.

"Hello? Hello, hello? Uhhh…I wanted to record a message for you to help you get settled in on your first night. Umm…I actually worked in that office before you. I'm finishing up my last week now as a matter of fact so…I know it can be a bit overwhelming, but I'm here to tell you: there's nothing to worry about…uh…you'll do fine! So, let's just focus on getting you through your first week, ok?"

Joel read through the introductory greeting, gave instructions on watching the animatronics; ("Yeah…they don't tell you these things when you sign up…"), and made sure his replacement knew to check his cameras and only use the doors if completely necessary. As soon as the message was done, Joel went back to the cameras. Bonnie was already in the West Hall. Joel couldn't let the animatronics get so close so soon again.

…

It had been a long time since they had gotten the Purple Man. He was smarter and quicker now. Bonnie and Chica went out first when they could sense the Purple Man's attention taken off of them. Freddy hanged back, waiting for the Purple Man to run out of power. It had happened before, so Freddy knew he didn't need to rush. Foxy didn't like to leave this early in the week either. He didn't like it when the Purple Man was watching, so it was harder for him to get out of his cove. Freddy sometimes doubted whether Foxy should even be here, but despite everything he had said, Freddy knew Foxy wanted to kill the Purple Man just as much as anyone else. Maybe it was more because he was afraid of the Purple Man rather than wanting to make him pay for what he had done, but it didn't really matter to Freddy. Foxy had killed the Purple Man before too.

Killed him before. How many times did they have to do this? The problem had occurred to Freddy before, but he ignored it. He knew that if they could kill the Purple Man, if they could kill him once and for all, things would be better. He wasn't sure how he knew that, or why it would be better, he just knew it. Sometimes, Freddy thought he could remember the answers to these questions when he looked at the drawings on the walls. Sometimes, they'd change into pictures of crying children. Freddy knew that the pictures were telling him about what the Purple Man had done, and why they needed to kill him.

…

"Uh, hello! Hello? Uh…well if you're hearing this, then you made it to day two…uh…congrats!"

Joel had been so focused on Monday night that he realized he had forgotten a few important points to let the replacement know about; making sure to use the door lights and keeping an eye on Foxy, who would move if the night guard got too focused on watching the Show Stage or didn't check the cameras enough. Once his shift ended, Joel went over everything he thought the new guard would need to know, and felt comfortable with the information he had given to him. The next phone calls would just be trying to encourage the guy to keep going.

On the third night though, Joel thought of one more thing to tell the new guy.

"…Uh, h-hey listen, I had an idea: If you happen to get caught and want to avoid getting stuffed into a Freddy suit, uhh, try playing dead! Ya know: go limp. Then there's a chance that…uh…maybe they'll think you're an empty costume instead. Uh, Then again, if they think you're an empty costume, they might try to…stuff a metal skeleton into you. I wonder how that would work…yeah never mind; scratch that, it's best not to get caught. Umm, o-ok. I-I'll leave you to it. See you on the flip side."


	35. Mike Schmidt

Mike drove into the Freddy Fazbear parking lot at 11 PM. He guessed that the guy standing out front was Frank Faz, his new boss.

"Hey, you must be Mike," Frank held his hand out and Mike shook it. "good to have you here."

"Thanks. I'm glad you're letting me have the job."

Frank grinned. "No problem!" He pushed a purple button shirt, hat, and key into Mike's arms. He pointed into the restaurant. "Main Office is just down the halls. Just lock the door once you go in, and all you got to do is keep an eye on the place until 6." He patted the shirt in Mike's arms. "Good luck, sport!" And drove off.

Mike froze in place with the uniform in his hands. He realized that he arm was still extended from shaking Bob's hand. Was that actually the boss? Mike felt like he was being pranked. As far as he could tell, this guy was Frank Faz, so Mike went ahead and did what he was told.

The Dining Area was more or less what Mike expected; just a big purple room with tables stacked with gaudy purple and yellow party hats. Things were more or less gaudy and obnoxious until Mike looked to his right, and saw something standing on the stage. He walked out in front of it to get a better look. There were three animatronics standing on the stage, a purple bunny, a brown bear, and a yellow duck. Mike had heard about the animatronics before, even though he had never been to Fazbear's himself. You'd think that with how kids talked about them, they'd be cute enough to be on a Looney Tunes cartoon, but they looked blocky and creepy to Mike. Why anyone would bother breaking into a place like this was beyond Mike, but he guessed that there was a safe or something like that in the Main Office that he needed to keep an eye on, so he kept on moving down to the East Hall.

There wasn't any safe that Mike could see in the Main Office, just a desk with a fan and a Fazbear poster. You'd have thought though with the security doors that they'd be expecting people to break in. There weren't any security monitors that Mike could see either. What was he supposed to do? He spied a tablet on the desk and picked it up. He accidentally pressed a button on the side, turning it on and showing a security feed of the Show Stage and the three animatronics Mike had passed by before.

"Cool."

Mike realized he was able to flip through each of the individual security feeds through this one tablet. He sat down at the desk, ready to whittle away the next six hours playing with the cameras. If this was all he was supposed to do, he'd have brought a magazine or something. The phone rang. Mike picked it up.

"Hello?"

The phone kept on ringing. Mike wondered if something was wrong with it. Eventually, the answering machine clicked.

" _Hello? Hello, hello? Uhhh…I wanted to record a message for you to help you get settled in on your first night._ "

"Oh." Mike said to himself. He wasn't supposed to answer the phone. He decided for the time being to put the tablet down and listen.

" _Umm…I actually worked in that office before you. I'm finishing up my last week now as a matter of fact so…I know it can be a bit overwhelming, but I'm here to tell you: there's nothing to worry about…uh…you'll do fine! So, let's just focus on getting you through your first week, ok?_ "

Huh. Mike had gone from a guy who had just thrown his uniform at him and told him to keep an eye on the place to a guy who was talking like a nervous life coach.

" _Uh, let's see, first there's an introductory greeting from the company that I'm supposed to read. Uh, it's kind of a legal thing, you know._ "

Did every restaurant have to go through a legal contract? Mike didn't really see a point in a place like this.

" _Um, 'Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. A magical place for kids and grown-ups alike, where fantasy and fun come to life.'_ "

Yeah. Grown-ups. Sure.

" _Fazbear Entertainment is not responsible for damage to property or person. Upon discovering that damage or death has occurred, a missing person report will be filed within 90 days, or as soon property and premises have been thoroughly cleaned and bleached, and the carpets have been replaced._ '"

"…Wait, what?"

" _Blah blah blah, now that might sound bad, I know, but there's really nothing to worry about. Uh, the animatronic characters here do get a bit quirky at night, but do I blame them? No! If I were forced to sing those same stupid songs for twenty years and I never got a bath, I'd probably be a bit irritable at night too. So, remember, these characters hold a special place in the hearts of children and we need to show them a little respect, right? Okay._ "

Irritable? How could anyone tell if a robot was 'irritable'?

" _So, just be aware, the characters do tend to wander a bit. Uh, they're left in some kind of free roaming mode at night._ "

"Wait, what?"

" _Uh...Something about their servos locking up if they get turned off for too long. Uh, they used to be allowed to walk around during the day too. But then there was The Bite of '87._ "

"The what!?"

" _Yeah. I-It's amazing that the human body can live without the frontal lobe, you know?_ "

"What!?"

" _Uh, now concerning your safety, the only real risk to you as a night watchman here, if any, is the fact that these characters, uh, if they happen to see you after hours probably won't recognize you as a person. They'll p-most likely see you as a metal endoskeleton without its costume on._ "

"…O…K…"

" _Now since that's against the rules here at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, they'll probably try to...forcefully stuff you inside a Freddy Fazbear suit._ "

"They'll what?!"

" _Um, now, that wouldn't be so bad if the suits themselves weren't filled with crossbeams, wires, and animatronic devices, especially around the facial area. So, you could imagine how having your head forcefully pressed inside one of those could cause a bit of discomfort...and death. Uh, the only parts of you that would likely see the light of day again would be your eyeballs and teeth when they pop out the front of the mask, heh._ _Y-Yeah, they don't tell you these things when you sign up. But hey, first day should be a breeze. I'll chat with you tomorrow. Uh, check those cameras, and remember to close the doors only if absolutely necessary. Gotta conserve power. Alright, good night._ "

Mike stared at the answering machine for a few seconds. Now he was pretty sure he was being pranked, but what was he supposed to do now? He was pretty sure that this was the right place, so he went back to the tablet.

The purple rabbit wasn't on the stage anymore.

...

The Purple Man is slower today.

We were so close…it's not fair.

…It's alright. Tomorrow is another day.

Why can't he just leave us alone!

Don't be afraid of him Foxy. He's the one who should be afraid.

I don't want him to see me.

Foxy, we need to stop him. You gotta help us.

…Do…do you think that…if we get him this time…they'll understand? Do you think…someone will help us?

…They will. Someone will. They have to.


	36. Bad Signs

3 nights. 3 nights fighting for my life from a bunch of robots dressed as cartoon animals. Mike wished he could laugh at that.

"Where's Chica!? Where's Chica!?"

Mike made himself shut up. Talking out loud just made it worse. He took a breath and listened. In the distance, he could hear pots and pans banging around in the Kitchen. He knew where Chica was. Chica wouldn't be in there for long though. It would be good to try to stop the other animatronics wherever they were for now before Chica got to close.

Freddy was still on the Show Stage. Phone Guy said that he was going to become more active as the week progressed, but Mike didn't know how bad things were going to get for a Wednesday. Freaking Phone Guy. Mike didn't know where Bonnie was, but he had gotten used to its pattern. He realized it would be smart to start from the end of Bonnie's path, in case Bonnie was closer than he was hoping. Mike switched to the West Hall Corner. Bonnie wasn't there. Something seemed different though. Mike didn't like details he couldn't get. It made him feel like he was missing something. Eventually, he realized that the poster in the room was brighter than usual. He hadn't paid that much attention to the posters, but he was pretty sure that he would have noticed a picture of a bright yellow Freddy in there. Whatever it was, Mike didn't like it. Maybe Bonnie had gone by without him noticing and changed the posters for some reason. If that was the case, he could be right outside the left door…

Without even thinking about it, Mike closed the left door. He checked the lights. Bonnie wasn't there. So what was with the poster? Mike went back to the tablet.

At the exact instant that he turned from the window to his tablet, Mike saw something big and yellow out of the corner of his eye.

IT'S ME.

"WHAT THE HELL!?"

Mike almost threw his tablet. As soon as he looked back up though, whatever was there wasn't there anymore. What the hell was it though? Mike knew that this job was getting to him, but he didn't think it would actually make him see and hear things. No matter what he said to Faz though, it was just ridden off as nerves. Mike had gotten nerves before his high school algebra test. If that was nerves, what the hell would Faz make of this? This hadn't been the first time Mike had seen stuff here. It was just the first time something had come into the office.

He had to focus. Get through the night, and then have the panic attack. Mike turned on the tablet, which went back to the West Hall corner. Bonnie was there now, staring up at the camera with blacked out eyes, but the yellow poster wasn't. Mike would worry about the poster later, but for now he'd need to keep his left door down. Now that he had refocused himself, Mike realized that he didn't hear Chica in the Kitchen anymore. He switched to the East Hall Corner. Chica was there now. Mike had to keep her away; he couldn't afford to have both doors up at once. But he noticed something else. There wasn't a poster there anymore; there was some kind of newspaper article. The article was too small print for Mike to read, and he didn't want to look to much into it anyway in case this triggered something else, but before Mike switched to the Pirate Cove, he was able to make out the title:

"Kids vanish at local pizzeria-bodies not found."

Mike tried to get it out of his mind. He had to focus on surviving, but no matter what happened, even when Foxy banged on his left door and Freddy left the Show Stage for the first time that week, Mike couldn't get an idea out of his head.

Was someone trying to tell him something?

…

My little guy almost got the Purple Man. He almost made him see things the way we do.

Sorry we still didn't get him though, Freddy.

It'll be alright. We'll get him. He can't hide forever.

Do you think that he's going to make it to Friday night?

I hope he does. I want him to hear me.

Freddy, what would have happened if the Golden kid got the Purple Man?

…To be honest…I don't really know…

…

Mike wasn't sure why he was coming back. It wasn't like he was doing this for the money anymore. He couldn't use money if he was stuffed inside of a suit. It wasn't because of a contract. Frankly, Mike would like to use that thing for toilet paper. He supposed it was just morbid curiosity. Something like this, as bad as it was, there had to be something behind it. Mike needed to figure it out. He had gone to the library after his last shift to look up old newspapers (what Mike had seen in the camera wasn't in the hall when he left.) The things that had happened here, with the entire franchise; why hadn't anyone looked into this before? What Mike hadn't found had bothered him more than what he had. The closest thing he could find referencing 'the bite of '87' that the Phone Guy (that was the only name Mike could give him) had told him about was a newspaper article from November 1987. The article was about a previous restaurant that had closed due to "possible malfunctions." If that was all that anyone had managed to write about this, then Fazbear Entertainment was very good at covering up accidents. What else was the store hiding? Mike was stupid to come back for this, but the only place that he could think of that could give him answers was the restaurant.

Mike took his seat again, wondering what other sage advice the Phone Guy had. How much did this guy know? How much was he hiding for the store? When this was over, Mike was going to find him and beat what he wanted out of the guy. The phone rang.

" _Hello, hello? Hey! Hey, wow, day 4. I knew you could do it._ _Uh, hey, listen, I may not be around to send you a message tomorrow._ "

There was a banging sound in the background, sort of like what Mike heard when Foxy was at the door.

"Oh…"

" _It's-It's been a bad night here for me. Um, I-I'm kinda glad that I recorded my messages for you uh, when I did._ _Uh, hey, do me a favor._ "

 _*_ _ **bang bang**_ _*_

" _Maybe sometime, uh, you could check inside those suits in the back room?_ "

 _*_ _ **bang bang**_ _*_

" _I'm gonna to try to hold out until someone checks. Maybe it won't be so bad._ "

 _*_ _ **bang bang**_ _*_

" _Uh, I-I-I-I always wondered what was in all those empty heads back there._ "

A chime started to play. Mike knew the song, even if he couldn't remember the exact title.

" _You know..._ "

Something was moaning. It was the same raspy moan that Mike had once heard from Bonnie and Chica when they had gotten to the Hall corners.

" _oh, no_ "

Something screamed, and the call ended in static.

Mike froze, but only for a second. He flipped the tablet straight to the Show Stage. This week had been like being in a war zone for him. You don't mourn people when your life is in danger.

"Sorry Phone Guy."


	37. Purple Men

_The following takes place during the events of_ _Don't Leave the Office_.

Who are these people Freddy?

…They're the Purple Man.

All of them?

Yes. He's the only person who'd be in the store after it closed.

There's more of them here?

What should we do?

Just stay still and wait. The Purple Man doesn't know we're here.

…

Pat pulled himself on stage next to Carla on stage, smiling at Freddy's face. He looked back at Kaylee.

"You having fun yet?"

"They're animatronics. Did you expect them to sing and dance for you?"

Pat shrugged. "Maybe."

Lee tapped Kaylee on the back.

"Lighten up, sis."

Gabe had gotten up on stage too, looking around it.

"Shouldn't there be an on/off switch somewhere?"

"I don't see anything." Pat answered, looking up and down the stage.

Carla walked in front of Freddy, looking out into the Dining Area from his perspective. She smiled, probably imagining herself on stage. Her grin turned into a smirk.

"You guys heard about the kids that were killed here?"

Gabe rolled his eyes at Carla and waved his hand in dismissal. "Oh, pfft."

"Everyone knows that story, Carla." Kaylee said. "Some guy dressed up in a Freddy Fazbear suit and lured some kids into a back room."

"They caught the guy…" Carla went on, grinning maniacally. "But they ne…"

Lee interrupted her. "Never found the kids, yeah, we know. And they say that people started noticing bad smells coming from the animatronics, and that they noticed blood and mucus leaking from their faces." He recited automatically.

"And they say that sometimes, if you go into a bathroom with the lights out, look in a mirror, and say 'Golden Freddy' three times, he'll appear and stuff you inside a spare suit."

Everyone stared at Carla in disbelief.

"You just made that up." Pat said in finality.

Carla sighed in disappointment and looked at Freddy with her hands on her hips. Lee got up on stage, grinning back at Kaylee, as if saying "Beat you." Pat walked up in front of Bonnie, strumming his guitar. Carla leaned in, looking inside Freddy's mouth, nose wrinkling.

"Guys, this thing really does smell."

"Yeah. Sure." Gabe said dismissively.

Carla's prank was so predictable. Kaylee didn't bother paying attention to her, instead looking at Freddy's face.

Which meant she was the only one to see him blink.

"Guys, I'm telling you that I smell…"

Carla's insistence was cut off when Freddy's jaw slammed down on her face, removing more than her frontal lobe.

The other four stood transfixed at Carla, whose body twitched slightly, and then fell off the stage. Kaylee was about to scream when someone beat her to it.

Bonnie dropped his guitar and grabbed Pat around the neck, screaming in his face. Pat screamed the second later, followed by everyone else.

Fueled by sisterly instinct, Kaylee grabbed Lee by the back of his belt and pulled him off stage, just before Chica could grab him, screaming an ear-splitting screech.

Pat cried and screamed for his life, trying to fight off Bonnie's grip. Freddy grabbed Pat's legs, and he and Bonnie picked up Pat. Gabe, Kaylee, and Lee all ran for their lives, Chica in pursuit.

…

Guys…

Not now Foxy.

The Purple Man's in here with me…

He's in the Pirate Cove? What's he doing?

H-he's hiding behind the curtains in front of me…

He doesn't see you?

It's dark in here…I don't think so…

…Foxy…now's your chance…

…I'm scared Freddy…

You gotta do this Foxy!

…I don't think I can…

Foxy, he hurt us! He hurt us, and he just keeps on hurting others! Don't let him get away! Don't you remember what he's done?

Foxy remembered. He remembered now matter how hard he tried to forget. It was in those times he remembered the Purple Man luring him and four other children into a dark room. He remembered…he wasn't always Foxy. He had another name…they all had names…what was his?

Foxy...

What was that kid's name?

The Purple Man had realized he wasn't alone. He was starting to turn around.

What was my name?

Do it now Foxy! Kill him! KILL HIM!

The Purple Man looked at Foxy.

That kid's name…it was Greg.

The Purple Man's eyes widened and his mouth dropped.

And you hurt him.

The Purple Man screamed.

You hurt Greg!

Foxy swung his hook.

…

Is everyone ready?

I locked the door, Freddy.

Great.

Freddy, don't you want me to lock the other door?

No, we don't have time. We just need to bring them back here. If we lock the other door, he'll know; the power will get drained too quickly and they'll just try to hide.

Alright.

Let's get him guys. Let's make him sorry.

…

The girl and his brother shoot past me as I spin to my right. Chica's right there, screaming as I smack the bag of flour in her face and spin around again. Her jaws bite down right where my head was. Bonnie runs into her the next second, blinded by the flour. I reach down and grab the hairspray with my right hand, my lighter in the left. Freddy's almost within grabbing distance when I flick the lighter on in front of the hairspray, spraying out its accelerants.

Freddy's engulfed by flames. For a brief second, I feel bliss, finally getting back at that bastard. Then Freddy screams at me. I realize that I've got a giant p_ed off flaming teddy in front of me.

No matter how mad he is, getting set on fire at least distracts him long enough for me to jump over one of the tables. I flip it over, trying to buy time before I'm grabbed by Freddy and burned alive.

The animatronics aren't just staying still anymore. This might be the first time I've ever seen them actually moving. For robots that are always so clunky on stage, they are moving so fluidly now, like their bodies are organic instead of mechanical. Chica kicks the table at me, which knocks me over the next table. Freddy picks up the first table and throws it away. I run and climb onto the stage, hoping that I can buy some time while they're trying to climb up it.

What the hell am I looking at? I've learned that there are two kinds of fear. Up until now, I've been experiencing one; watching and waiting while predators get closer and closer to their prey. Now, I see the other, watching monsters that are tearing apart anything in their way to get to me and tear me apart, and in front of them is Freddy, his suit on fire and his eyes glaring up at me. They jump on stage, faster than I did. I back into the wall.

The smoke from Freddy's suit finally activates the sprinklers. The animatronics stop when the water hits them. Freddy's fur is finally put out, but I've done what I wanted to do. The water from the sprinklers has put out the fire, but it's also peeling away at the damaged remains of his suit. I think the sudden cold that followed the extreme heat has done more damage to the suit then the burning does. Freddy's features begin to rot and fall away. He looks at his hand, and the fur falls off. Soon, his entire face falls away. I see now what's underneath. It almost looks like a human skeleton, but blockier. It still has eyelids though, and that's how I know how angry Freddy is now. Whatever high I felt I had gets blasted away as the endoskeleton grabs me around the throat and starts to squeeze.

…

Bonnie and Chica grabbed the endoskeleton.

Freddy turned around.

What are you doing?

PURPLE MAN!

The animatronics started to drag the Purple Man away.

NO! Stop! I'm not the Purple Man! He just burned by costume off! He's right there! He's right there! STOP!

You hurt us Purple Man! Now we're going to hurt you!

Chica and Bonnie dragged the endoskeleton Back Stage. It was hard to move. The Purple Man had clogged their gears with dough, but it didn't matter now that they had the Purple Man. Now they could make him answer for what he had done.

Stop! You don't know what you're doing!

Chica and Bonnie began to push the Purple Man into the suit.

Guys, it's me! It's Freddy! I'M FREDDY!

The Purple Man was pushed and ground into the suit. He stopped struggling. Bonnie and Chica stood there, admiring their work.

We finally got him Bonnie.

Yeah. Who knew he was disguised as Freddy.

But where's the real Freddy?

"Aaahhh…"

What was that?

Chica and Bonnie turned to where they had heard the noise. Bonnie walked towards it. It was Freddy, but it was just his head, left on a table.

Freddy?

Bonnie poked at the head.

Freddy, what happened to…

Suddenly, two purple endoskeleton arms shot out from Freddy's head. They clamped onto each side of Bonnie's head. He froze in place.

Bonnie!

The Purple Man leaped up from behind Freddy's head and threw it and Chica. It hit Chica in the head and fell into her hands. Freddy stared into Chica's eyes.

…F-Freddy?

The Purple Man leaped at Chica, hitting at her in the chest. Chica felt her endoskeleton fail, and the Purple Man hit her again in the head. Chica was able to see her face on a fridge magnet before the Purple Man jammed it at her head.

…

The Purple Men walked by the cove. They looked happy. Foxy remembered the last time he had seen the Purple Man happy. As they walked by the cove, Foxy slipped out behind him. He had been afraid for so long. It wasn't fair. Now Foxy was going to make the Purple Man scared. Now Foxy was going to hurt the Purple Man.

"Da da dum dum dum, da da dum dum diddily doom doom diddily doom…"

The Purple Men turned around.

"Move. Now, move!"

They ran. Foxy wasn't afraid of the Purple Man anymore. He was going to get him now. The Purple Man ran by an open door and pulled out a bottle. As he was running, he poured it on the floor behind him. Foxy was so close, his hook was right above the Purple Man's head…

The Purple Man turned at the last second. Foxy slipped on the soapy floor. He scrambled to get back to his feet. The Purple Man was in the office.

You're not getting away!

Foxy swung his hook and snagged the Purple Man by his backpack. He had him now. He pulled back, but then felt something pin him to the ground. Foxy looked, and he was on the floor, right next to the Purple Man, pinned down by the security door. His hook was still in the Purple Man's backpack. The Purple Man writhed out of Foxy's grip.

NO! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!

The Purple Man stood over Foxy and pushed the door button. It opened, and Foxy tried to writhe his was back up, but found he couldn't move. The door had bent the spine of his endoskeleton. The Purple Man kicked Foxy in the head and closed the door. It crushed Foxy's chest. The door opened again.

This isn't fair…

The door closed.

…

Guys?

I'm sorry Freddy. The Purple Man got away.

…I know. It's okay.

He made us hurt you, didn't he, Freddy?

Yeah…it's okay, I understand…

But, you're our friend, and we hurt you Freddy, I'm so sorry…

Don't worry. We'll get him for this. Is Foxy here?

…yes…

Foxy? What's wrong?

…purple man…hurt…

Take it easy Foxy, just take it easy.

…can't…stay…here…body hurt…

Just hold on Foxy. They'll repair us soon.

…will…hold…on…we'll…we'll get him…won't we?...

Yes Foxy. We're going to get him no matter how many times he comes back.


	38. Directives

Frank Faz's disappearance was the straw that had broken Fazbear Entertainment's back. They had been focusing on dealing with the media storm their previous night guard Mike Schmidt had unleashed on them, so when Frank went missing, they had an open spot that a blood-hungry media was happy to attack. There had simply been too many accidents, too many tragedies, and too many disappearances for Fazbear Entertainment to be able to both avoid police investigations and keep the store running. They chose the former. There were too many loose ends to reclaim anything from the store, so Fazbear Entertainment simply dropped it. The store was left to rot, along with everything in it.

…

Freddy didn't know what to do. He hadn't known what to do for years now. It had been a very long time since they had last fought the Purple Man, longer than any time they had been put into storage. This time at least, they hadn't been put into a box in some warehouse, but he wasn't sure that this was any better. He and his friends had been just forgotten. It wasn't like they ever enjoyed being forced in their movements, constantly singing the same songs, without having the pleasure that they once had of playing with the children, but at least then, they could see children being happy. Now, they were stuck in a dark, damp store, facing empty seats.

Wasn't there something that they were supposed to do? Why were they there in the first place? Freddy looked into his programming

-Directives:

-MAKE CHILDREN HAPPY-

-ENCOURAGE BUYING OF FAZBEAR PIZZA AND TOKENS-

-STAY IN THE STORE-

-OBEY FAZBEAR ENTERTAINMENT POLICY RULES-

These had been Freddy's goals in life for as long as he could remember. But…how was he supposed to do that now? He could stay in the store, and he could obey the rules downloaded into his head, but how could he make children happy and encourage them to eat pizza if they weren't here anymore? This bothered Freddy so much. But what bothered him more than his inability to fulfill his purpose was his unease that this wasn't all there was too it.

The Purple Man. Something to do with the Purple Man. Freddy knew this, even though he didn't really know how he knew it. He thought he used to. Maybe it had something to do with the rules, something about endoskeletons now being allowed to go without a suit on, but that didn't seem right. The rules…whatever Freddy was supposed to do, he didn't think it was in the rules.

Guys?

Yeah, Freddy?

I wanted to ask a question.

What is it Freddy, you old landlubber?

…What are we supposed to be doing?

No one answered immediately. Chica was the first to say anything.

You know what we're supposed to do Freddy. You know the rules.

Don't you think that there's something…I don't know, something outside of the rules?

…The rules are all there are Freddy. We don't have anything else.

But there's no kids here. That's half of the rules that don't matter anymore. And if you think about it, without kids, the other two directives don't make sense either. We're supposed to make kids happy. But how are we supposed to do that if we have to stay in the store?

We're waiting for the kids, Freddy.

But there aren't any kids here, Bonnie! Look at this place, there's no pizza, the games don't work anymore, it's dark, it's wet, it's scary! No kid wants to come in here!

…It's what this place was built for, Freddy. It's what we were built for.

But the store isn't doing what it's supposed to do! Yeah, the store is meant for kids. But that's something else. The store isn't doing what it's supposed to do, so what's the point of the rules at all?

Freddy, stop! We can't think of that. Listen, I know we don't have any kids to entertain. But the directives are all we have left. Look…kids will come back. Someone's going to get the store open again. It's going to happen.

You might be right. But if the store opens again, the Purple Man will come back.

Foxy, we don't know that…

He will come back. He always does.

Freddy hated to admit it, but Foxy was right. As long as he could remember, as long as the store was around, the Purple Man was there. Freddy could remember him as far back as he could remember working at the store. In fact, now that he thought about it, somehow Freddy could remember the Purple Man from even before he started performing.

Guys, do you remember anything from before we came here? Before we started to perform, I mean.

They couldn't answer.

Freddy…we've always performed. As long as there were kids, we performed. We made them happy.

I remember there were days when we had to stay in storage when we were replaced for a bit...

Freddy could feel Bonnie shudder. Those weren't good days.

And I remember when we got to play with the kids between performances. But before all that…well…I guess we were just made in a factory, or wherever animatronics like us come from.

Come on, guys! Isn't there anything at all? Don't you remember anything?

I…I might…

What? What is it Foxy?

I remember…back when there were still kids…and the Purple Man was still here…it was when he tricked you guys…and when my last body got broken…I remembered something.

What was it?

A name. I don't really remember what it was…but I remember that I remembered it.

That doesn't make any sense.

How do you know you remember a name at all if you don't remember what it is?

Because it wasn't Foxy. I wasn't always Foxy.

What?  
I just know that. I know I wasn't always Foxy.

That makes even less sense. You've always been Foxy, for as long as I can remember.

Are you sure? How far back can you remember?

Well…why is that important anyway? What's so special about that other name?

I'm not so sure…but I think it had something to do with the Purple Man. The Purple Man did something.

What…you think the Purple Man did something to you when you had that other name?

…He…He did something…to that person…with the name…

I thought you said it was your name though?

My…that name…the person who had that name…

…

Foxy, are you sure about this?

Yes…I know it.

But you don't remember your name.

…No…but I know I had one.

Do you remember if we had other names?

I don't know…I think so…

Do you remember any of them?

…No…I'm sorry.

…

Freddy?

There's something…I know there is…

Freddy, where are you going?

I need to think.

Freddy, we've got limited power, we should save it for when we need something important!

…If you want to stop me, you can.

What? No! Freddy, this isn't fair! You don't get to decide this!

Freddy! C'mon, what do you think you're doing?

Walking. Anywhere. I need to think.

Darn it Foxy, look what you've made him do!

I'm…I'm sorry…

Freddy! Freddy!

Freddy walked off of the stage by himself. He wasn't sure about what Foxy had told him. He couldn't remember a time that he had ever been anything but Freddy. But there was something to what Foxy said to. Freddy let himself think. He retreated into himself.

There were others. There were others like them, at the newer store. They were animatronics, but they didn't understand that they were animatronics at first. They didn't even think of themselves as animatronics. Did Freddy ever think like that? He tried to remember them, but they didn't last long. They were only around for a few days before the bite of '87. There wasn't much to remember. Still though, there had been someone else with them that Freddy had known longer. It had been there for a long time…since Freddy could remember, since the Purple Man.

It was a Puppet. The Puppet was the first animatronic Freddy had met. But what had happened to the Puppet? It wasn't dismantled with the Toy animatronics (that's what they were called, Freddy remembered), but what had happened to it? Where was it now? Freddy tried as hard as he could, but he just couldn't remember. But there was someone else though, Freddy realized. There was someone else he had known along with the Puppet...before the Puppet…before even the Purple Man. There was a name. Freddy couldn't remember it, but not being able to remember it made him afraid. It made him very afraid. He couldn't move on if he couldn't remember. The name, what was it? Was it Freddy's? The one he had before? Freddy didn't think so. As he thought about it, it seemed so unimportant. But the name, the one that Freddy had forgotten, what was it? What was it? The struggle was hurting Freddy in a way that he had never been hurt before. He couldn't remember feeling pain before, even when he had been set on fire and re-stuffed into a suit. This…it was hurting his inner being, something Freddy couldn't possibly understand but knew was there. He hung his head, exhausted.

I'm sorry I can't remember you, I'm sorry…

I'm sorry…

I'm sorry…

Robbie.

The name just came to him. Robbie. That was the name. But what was important about Robbie? Freddy didn't know. He just knew that he was. His purpose was to help Robbie. That was why Freddy needed to kill the Purple Man. If he could do that, Robbie would be okay. But where was Robbie?

Freddy walked around a corner, and saw something. It wasn't a customer, an employee, the Purple Man, or anything that Freddy had ever seen before. What he saw he was certain wasn't Robbie, but it was too bizarre to ignore.

His shadow was standing in front of him. Freddy looked at the floor, wondering how his shadow was standing up, but saw that his shadow was still attached to him. Whatever this was, it wasn't his shadow…as far as Freddy could tell.

Follow me.

The Shadow Freddy began to walk away. Freddy ran after it. He had no idea what this was.

Who are you?

The Shadow simply continued to walk.

Follow me.

Freddy struggled to keep up with the figure.

Can you help me find Robbie?

It occurred to Freddy that since he only just now remembered the name Robbie, it was unlikely that anyone else would know him here, but the figure still didn't address him beyond what he continued to say.

Follow me.

Freddy followed the figure. He had walked around here before. He had walked around this entire store before. The figure wasn't showing him anything new.

What do you want?

Suddenly, Shadow Freddy vanished.

What? Where did you go? Where are you?

Freddy tried to continue on where he had last seen Shadow Freddy.

-ERROR-

Freddy couldn't move on. What he was looking at in front of him didn't make any sense. It wasn't a wall. It wasn't something that Freddy had bumped into. It was something that he couldn't interact with. It wasn't empty space either. Freddy just couldn't perceive or conceptualize it in any way.

-ERROR-

Freddy struggled to disengage himself with the anomaly.

-ERROR-

Freddy thought he heard something.

He saw a purple face with black eyes and mouth, and then nothing.


	39. It's me

Will?

There was something wrong. Robbie couldn't find Will anymore. He hadn't moved from the spot where the Golden Freddy suit was left for years, but in all that time, he could still tell when Will was there. But now, Robbie couldn't feel him. He couldn't feel anyone. Robbie didn't want to be alone. The Golden Freddy suit was simply, a suit. It didn't have an endoskeleton in it like the others, so Robbie couldn't move around in it if he tried. For the first time, he left the suit.

The Ethereal was cold, but it wasn't too different from what Robbie had experienced all this time. He went to where he had last felt Will at the Show Stage. He wasn't there. No one was. Greg wasn't even there. Robbie searched through the entire store until he arrived at what he could only assume was where Will had gone.

The remains of the animatronics were strewn across the floor. They had been completely disassembled, showing huge dents as if someone had attacked them with a sledgehammer. Robbie was able to feel the remnants of Will's spirit in them.

Will?

Will and his friends had been hurt. Robbie reached out to him, and pulled Will out. The spirits looked towards a door. They entered through it. Will, Peter, Lucy, and Greg's spirits formed a line at the doorway, and Robbie moved into the room. There was someone in it.

Robbie looked up at the Purple Man. The Purple Man looked back at him. It seemed that the Purple Man was gathering up materials he had brought into the store with him, including a sledgehammer. He reached towards the hammer, but looked at the children confused.

He could see them. He could see Robbie, Will, Greg, Peter, and Lucy, all staring at him. Robbie came towards him.

It's me.

"Who are you?"

It's me.

"Get back…"

It's me.

"Stay away from me!"

It's me.

"Leave me alone!"

It's me.

"You…You're all dead! You're supposed to be all dead!"

The Purple Man backed away. Robbie followed him. He was scared, but Robbie realized, he needed to do this. The Purple Man needed to see them. They needed this to move on.

It's me.

"I don't know you! You're not real!"

The Purple Man ran to the other side of the room, and Robbie followed. The other spirits remained at the doorway. Robbie had been the one that the Purple Man had used to kill them all. It needed to be Robbie who finished this.

"I won't let you get me!"

The Purple Man dove back to the other side of the room. There was a suit. He shoved himself into it. Robbie stopped. The suit was yellow, like the last one. The Purple Man stood back up and looked at the children. He started to laugh. Even with as incorporeal as Robbie was, he couldn't believe that the Purple Man found what he was doing funny.

Something snapped. The Purple Man was still laughing for a few seconds, but as he was doing this, he started to cough. Then he started to groan. Blood and mucus started to seep out of the suit's mouth and eyes. He started to scream.


	40. What can we use?

Things should have been different, but they couldn't have been worse. Will, Robbie, Lucy, Greg, Peter, Ben, Liam, Gina, Hayden, Vince, and Val were all still in the store, but with no body. Robbie could still use the Golden Freddy suit, but it was like living in a cardboard box. They understood what needed to be done to free them, but as if fate was mocking them, what needed to be done was near impossible now.

The Purple Man wasn't dead. He wasn't alive either though. He was still in the suit. Sometimes, he could move and writhe around, but nothing beyond that. He should have died, but he was clinging to what remained of his body. He didn't want to move on. He knew where he would go if he did. So now, he was stuck in a half-life, still able to feel, see, hear, and smell, but unable to really live. The Purple Man had the same desires he had in life, but no way to satisfy them.

The children's spirits were stuck in the Ethereal now, always cold and lonely, no matter how many of them there were. They couldn't feel happiness or warmth of any kind, and they were stuck in a cold, dark, wet store that people had forgotten about. Sometimes, they were able to take a form of some kind through the pictures on the wall, but that was only when people walked by the decrepit store and peered in, allowing the children their imaginations and fears to take form. There was only one other vessel that they could inhabit; the store's security system. Even though the power had been lost long ago, the children could enter into the system and see and hear through the cameras. They were able to use the now archaic computer that the security was linked through to take the form of pixels. The children existed this way for years.

One day though, the children noticed a door opening in the system. There was a link with the outside, through something that still belonged to the store. They funneled through it, and saw someone. The man was damaged, very damaged, but the spirits had encountered this person before.

An idea, an impossible idea occurred to them.

Could they talk to this man?

Could this man help them?

Could this man save them?

 _To be continued in Save Them._


	41. Teaser

What is this thing? Why did they give it to me?

Have I seen this before? It…it feels familiar. I wonder if I…

Oh, it turned on. What do I do now? …I don't know…but I think I just need to pay attention to this. It's important. I think…will I die if I don't watch this? Has that almost happened before? I just…I just need to watch it.

…

-Get Ready!-

-Go! Go! Go!-

Foxy's got to get to the kids on time! I got to get to them!...Foxy's going down the hall…He got to the kids!

-Hurray!-

The kids are so happy to see Foxy! There's confetti everywhere! Hurray!

-Get Ready!-

-Go! Go! Go!-

Foxy's got to get to the kids again!...He's going down the hall…There's the kids again!

-Hurray!-

The kids are happy to see Foxy again! This is fun!

-Get Ready!-

-Go! Go! Go!-

Foxy's got to…wait…who's that? He looks weird…he's all purple. It doesn't matter. I've got to go to the kids.

Wait…what? What's wrong with the kids? Why…why are they all white? What…what…no…no…

"AUGH!"

…

"Wait, what's wrong with him? He just freaked out all of a sudden!"

"Just get in there before he hurts himself."

"Look at what it's done to him! You really thought that was going to help?"

"It did. We got a reaction, didn't we?"

…

This again…it scared me the last time I played. I don't want to play again…but…but it's important…if I don't watch it…I could die…

Why do I think that? Where have I seen this before?

I guess I don't have any choice.

…

-Take cake to the children.-

-S-

Oh…here I am. That kid's red…he's probably mad. I better bring cake to him.

-A-

What's that noise? Darn it…another kid wants cake…got to move…

-V-

Another one? I better hurry…Wait…who's that?

-E-

Is…Is he crying? Why?

-H-

I've got to keep moving…every time I get cake to a kid another one wants some. But that poor kid…can I do anything for him?

-I-

What are those noises? Why are they saying letters? Darn it…now two kids are angry…

-M-

There's…there's too much to focus on right now…too many angry kids…

-S-

I'm sorry little guy, I wish I could help you…maybe you could come in?

-A-

What, three now? I'm moving as fast as I can!

-V-

Wait, are the letters just being repeated now? What did it spell?

-E-

S, A, V, E, H, I, M, S, A, V, E…

-H-

Save him? What do you mean? Wait…what's that?

-I-

Is that a car?

-M-

Wait…what's going on? I'm not moving as fast as I was…

-S-

Darn it, those kids are getting…wait…the car stopped…

-A-

…That…that man…have I seen him before? He's…purple?

-V-

What…what's wrong with that kid? Why are his eyes getting bigger?

-E-

Darn it, I'm working as hard as I can, stop being angry! Why am I slowing down so much?

-H-

That kid's crying so much, what is that purple man doing?

-I-

What? No…no…no…that kid…he's all white. No…he can't be…I…I couldn't do anything! Stop screaming at me! I can't move, I can't do anything! You! How could you! What did you do to that…

"AUGH!"

…

"He's screaming again! That stupid tablet is upsetting him!"

"Just get in there and strap him down before he hurts himself again."

"You can't do this anymore! It's not helping!"

"Shut up and do what you're told. This is the only thing that has gotten any reaction out of him."

"NO! NO! WHO ARE YOU? I TRIED! I SWEAR I TRIED!"

…

This…who keeps giving this to me? I don't want to play! I don't want to see any more…I don't want to make Foxy and…whatever that other thing was…I don't want them to hurt me…I won't do it…I won't!

But…I have to do this, don't I? It's…it's my job.

…

-0000 Give Gifts.-

…What's that? Is that that…that thing from last time?

-H-

Give Gifts…what does that mean?

-E-

Those things in the corners…are they dead?

-L-

Do I need to…a present?

-0100 Give Gifts.-

-P-

I see. I bring the presents to those things.

-0200 Give Gifts.-

-T-

What are those letters? There was T…

-0300 Give Gifts.-

-H-

H…T, H…

-E-

T, H, E,

-0400 Give Gifts.-

-M-

T, H, E, M…That's all of the presents, but what was the first word?

-0400 Give Life.-

-H-

H…Wait, Give Life? How do I…?

-E-

Wait, wait, H, E,…

-L-

H, E, L,…

-P-

H, E, L, P, T, H, E, M…H, E, L, P, T…Help them?

-T-

How? Do I just…

-0500 Give Life.-

-H-

I see…but what does that do? I'm just giving them a mask…

-0600 Give Life.-

-E-

Does the mask…is it supposed to give them life?

-0700 Give Life.-

-M-

I'm slowing down again…These masks…have I seen them before?

-0800 Give Life.-

"AUGH!"

…

"Stop! Please Stop!"

"Don't you see that this is bothering him? You can't keep making him work with that thing!"

"I will help him as I see fit. Even if you don't agree with me, I consider this to be progress. Now get in there before he hurts himself."

"I THOUGHT I WAS HELPING YOU! I THOUGHT I WAS HELPING YOU!"

…

…This just won't end…it just won't end…

What do you want from me?

…

So…I'm a bear now? This feels better.

-S-

Not this again…S…

-A-

What am I supposed to do? Might as well get out of this room…

-V-

I remember this thing…I was controlling it last time. Why does it look like a mime?

-E-

I guess I need to follow it. Wait, what's that in the corner? It looks a little like me…just…flatter…

-T-

The first word is SAVE again…Is someone in trouble?

-H-

In the corner…no…no I was too late…I need to hurry…

-E-

T, H, E…Save them?

-M-

Where are you taking me? Are those party hats? What is this place?

-S-

What!?...Is that…blood? Wha…what happened? There's…so much of it…

-A-

No…please stop…I don't want to see anymore…what can I do?

-V-

Why can't you tell me anything!? What are you doing to me?

-E-

What!? Who's…no…it's that purple man again…he's been hurting kids…I've got to get away…

-T-

Can't you do anything? What do you want me to do? What can I do?

-H-

Another body…there's so many dead children…what happened? This is all…

-E-

This isn't right…this shouldn't be happening in a place like this…

-M-

I…I want to help you…but what can I do?

…

"…Hm…no response this time…disappointing."

"I kind of like him not screaming, personally."

(Sigh.) "He's been in there long enough. You can just take that tablet away from him."


End file.
